Aftermath
by Scott Washburn
Summary: Chapter 1 is "The Reckoning" and covers the time between Quaritch's death and the evacuation of the Humans. Chapter 2 shows what is happening back on Earth. Chapter 3 is set 20 years later on Pandora. Chapter 4 is set many years later warning: very sad
1. Chapter 1

Aftermath

Chapter One: The Reckoning

By Scott Washburn

_Even a Palulukan must know when to run - Na'vi Proverb_

2154 AD

"What the hell is going on?" demanded Parker Selfridge. The multitude of displays ringing the Hells Gate command center flowed with information, but none of it made any sense to him.

"Hard to say, sir," said Captain Harriet Kim. The woman was the ranking security officer left at Hells Gate after Colonel Quaritch departed a few hours earlier with the bulk of the base security forces. Forty minutes ago that small armada of gunships, transports and the priceless orbital shuttle had entered what was called the Flux Vortex. The enormously powerful magnetic field of the planet Pandora was strongest there and not only did that make Unobtainium-laced mountains float, it played absolute hell with electronics. Telemetry had failed completely and even voice communications between Hells Gate and the troops quickly became spotty. Thirty minutes ago they had picked up messages that indicated the natives were attacking. Ever since then there had been nothing but an impossible jumble of fragmented messages, most of them in that nearly unintelligible combat-speak used by the military. Kim and her com-techs seemed to be able to make some sense of it at first and translated for Selfridge's benefit, but in the last few minutes less and less was coming through and the faces around the command center were becoming grimmer and grimmer. A chill went down Selfridge's spine.

"Hard to say?" he snapped. "You must be able to tell something! What about the satellite imagery?" He gestured to one of the displays where swarms of computer-colored dots swirled around a real-time photo of the target area.

"We can't tell much from that, sir. There's high cloud cover and… a lot of smoke. Without telemetry to link to the infrared contacts on the image, we can't really tell who is who. The enemy banshees are nearly as large as our choppers and picking them out is difficult." The woman's eyes never left the displays and her voice sounded as uneasy as Selfridge felt.

"What about the shuttle? Surely you can pick out something _that_ size! And Quaritch's command ship is far larger than any banshee! Hell, I can see two big blobs on the image myself! Those must be them!"

"Uh…" Kim's voice faltered. "Yes sir, they seem to be. We were tracking their movements until a few minutes ago. But… neither one seems to be moving now."

"Hovering? Why would they do that? That stupid holy tree thing is only half a klick away—right there!—why would they pull up short of the target?"

"I'm not sure they _are_ hovering, sir," said Kim, her voice almost a whisper. "Their IR signatures are… much too large now."

"Temperatures on both contacts are reading over a thousand centigrade now, ma'am," said a tech. "Flamers for sure."

"Flamers…!" choked Selfridge.

"It looks like they've gone down," nodded Kim.

"Down! But the shuttle!" Selfridge clutched the back of one of the chairs to steady himself. The shuttle! The enormous surface-to-space vehicle cost nearly a hundred _billion_ dollars! He hadn't wanted to let Quaritch use it, but the Colonel had guaranteed him it wouldn't get a scratch! Panic coursed through him. How was he going to explain this to the home office? It could ruin him. Hell! If this was half as bad as it was looking he was ruined already! What was he going to do…?

"Ma'am!" called another com tech. "Echo One-Niner is moving clear of the Flux, We've got a clear audio signal."

"Patch it through!" commanded Kim. Immediately a voice came from one of the speakers. It was anything but clear in Selfridge's opinion, but it was barely intelligible.

"Hells Gate, this is Echo One-Niner, come _in_, Godammmit!" Despite the lousy signal, even Selfridge could detect the near-hysteria in the voice.

"Echo One-Niner this is Hells Gate Control. Report your status." said Captain Kim.

"My status? My status stinks! That's my status! Those freaking things _ate_ my door gunners! They just… they just reached in and grabbed them!" the voice was half-sobbing now.

"Who's piloting Echo One-Niner?" asked Kim to one of the techs.

"Sergeant Raoul Weiss, ma'am"

"Settle down Sergeant Weiss, this is Captain Kim. Get hold of yourself and give me your report."

An amazing string of profanity poured from the speaker, which became suddenly much clearer as the chopper pulled out of the flux, but eventually Weiss calmed down enough to obey Kim's order. "We… we were in among the floating rocks when they attacked. Hundreds and hundreds of blueskins on banshees. They took out eight or ten of the choppers right off, but then we started chewing them up. It looked like we had 'em beat, but then hundreds—thousands—more banshees attacked. I don't think they even had any of the blueskins riding them, it was just the animals! We tried… we tried, but there were just too damn many of them! I used up all my ordnance and they still kept coming! When I lost Kedge and Jones I got the hell out. There was nothing else I could do!"

"Did you see what happened to the shuttle?" called out Selfridge. Kim shot him an annoyed look, but repeated the question to Weiss.

"Wasn't looking that way when it happened—I had other problems! Just a hell of a bang, Damn near tumbled my gyros!"

"What about the Dragon and Colonel Quaritch?"

"I saw it spiraling in, on fire. Don't know about the Colonel. The guys on the ground were screaming for help about then, too. Said they were being swarmed over by big animals. That's' when I got out."

"Ma'am?" said another tech. "We've got four more choppers coming out of the Flux."

"Very well. Sergeant Weiss, return to base," said Kim.

"Damn right!" snarled Weiss.

"F-five?" stuttered Selfridge. "There are only five gunships left? Out of _forty-six_?"

"There are bound to be more," said Kim automatically.

There were. Three more to be exact.

"So what do we do now?" asked Selfridge in a daze. "Captain Kim, you're in command now, aren't you? What do we do now?"

"Yes, I'm in command," said the woman grimly. "As for what we do, we prepare to defend this base!"

* * *

"So what do we do now?" asked Norm Spellman. The exhausted avatar driver—former avatar driver he amended bitterly—slumped to the ground beside Jake Sully and the Na'vi woman Neytiri. He was as spent as he had ever been. He was drenched in sweat, every muscle ached, and the phantom pain in his chest from the wound his avatar had taken still throbbed. He shuddered at the memory of that. A sudden impact, a searing pain and then blackness. A blackness that slowly gave way to a dimly lit coffin. He wasn't sure he could ever go back into a link capsule again even if he did still have an avatar.

Neither of his companions answered and he didn't have the energy to ask them again. He just sat and stared at the remains of Colonel Quaritch and his AMP suit, sprawled on the ground a dozen meters away. The rage he had felt earlier as he left the shack, gun in hand, looking for someone to kill, briefly returned. This was all that bastard's fault! He was responsible for Grace's death. He was responsible for all the death and destruction of this awful day. Norm had never been more relieved to see anyone dead. And he'd seen more dead people in the last few hours than most people did in a lifetime. He hoped he never saw another one. He unslung the assault rifle on his shoulder and tossed it away. "I don't much like this soldiering business, Jake. I think I'll leave it to professionals like you from now on."

That seemed to get through to Jake and he stirred in Neytiri's arms. "Rest, Jake," said the Na'vi woman, gently restraining her lover with a hand the size of a dinner plate. "You must rest."

"Crap, this body hasn't been doing anything," said Jake. "That's the one that's beat to hell." He pointed to where his avatar lay. "But I gotta get it operational and find out what's going on. The shooting's died down, but have we won or lost?"

"Well, Quaritch is dead and so are most all of his troops," said Norm. "There's burning gunships all over the place and I walked back toward the battleground as far as I dared. A lot of dead mercs on the ground and none alive that I found. I was afraid to go any farther: I wasn't sure if all the animals could tell that I was one of the good guys. Uh, just how exactly did you arrange that, Jake?"

"Not sure. Apparently Eywa does answer prayers sometimes."

"Eywa? You mean you…? My god, Jake! Do you realize what that means?"

"It means Eywa is one badass goddess."

"No! Well, yes, but that's not what I'm talking about! You asked her for help and she understood! And somehow she could communicate directly with all the animals! This is incredible! Damn! I wish Grace were here."

"She is here." answered Jake and Neytiri in unison.

Norm's eyes blurred with tears. "Yeah… yeah…" Grace had been… special. He took a breath. "So what do we do now?"

"We need to get the shack patched up enough that I can link to my avatar. The Toruk Makto still has work to do."

Norm sighed. "Right. I'll break out the emergency sealing kit. I need a shower anyway."

* * *

Captain Harriet Kim looked around the briefing room and tried to figure out what the hell she was going to say. There wasn't much that she could say that would make any difference. The simple fact was they were screwed.

"No survivors from the ground forces?" squeaked Parker Selfridge. "None at all?" Kim had always thought the Company boss looked like an oversized mouse. Now he was starting to sound like one, too.

"None have turned up so far," said Lieutenant Anderson. Ivan Anderson was now the acting operation officer just as Kim was now the acting commander. In fact, everyone on the staff except for the logistics officer was acting in place of someone killed in the battle. "We've had recon drones skirting the edges of the Flux Vortex for the last two days looking for our troopers. Any that haven't shown up by now aren't going to be showing up at all."

Kim shook her head. From what they had been able to piece together by debriefing the surviving gunship crews and downloading sensor readings it seemed likely that none of the ground forces had survived very long once the enemy had unleashed the animals against them. Damn Quaritch! She had advised against deploying ground forces at all. Just drop the bombs on the damn tree, shoot hell out of anything that moved, and then come home and evaluate the results. But Quaritch was a maniac. She'd suspected that from her first day on Pandora. The man was just itching for a reason—any reason—to go into action. So when the reason had finally arrived, he wasn't about to hold anything back. She suspected that her opposition to his plan is what had caused her to be left behind. And left alive.

"So what do we have left?" asked Selfridge. "And what are we going to do?"

"We have two hundred and forty-three of the security detachment remaining. Six of those are seriously wounded. Twelve armed helicopters, about thirty operational AMP suits and some other miscellaneous equipment. Plus the permanent perimeter defenses," said the acting personnel officer. "However, the majority of the remaining personnel are support and service people, not front line combat troops—although all have had the training. And, we have over a thousand civilian personnel at the base, most of them could use a weapon if it becomes necessary. We have a substantial reserve of small arms which could be distributed."

"Which means we can defend Hells Gate for the time being," said Kim, breaking her silence.

"Just Hells Gate?" asked Selfridge. "What about the mining operations? And what do you mean 'for the time being'?"

"I'm sorry, sir, but until we know exactly what the hostiles plan and what forces they can bring to bear, we cannot disperse our own forces. I've already ordered the evacuation of all personnel from Site Two. I think we will need to shut down Site One as well and bring everyone back within the perimeter here."

"What about all the equipment?" protested Selfridge. "We've been shipping thousands of tons of start-up equipment to Site Two. We can't just abandon it!"

"I'm afraid we'll have to," replied Kim firmly. "The remotely controlled mobile equipment at Site Two can be piloted back here, although that will take weeks and will be subject to attack. The mobile equipment from Site One can be moved inside the main perimeter at once. We simply don't have the resources to defend everything. The ability of the hostiles to call upon the native wildlife in combat is something we never made any allowance for…"

"We never knew they could do it!" spluttered Selfridge.

"If you'd listened to Dr. Augustine you might have realized it!" cried a man in a lab coat. Kim thought his name was Max Somethingorother. Apparently he was the senior science geek left at Hells Gate. Kim wasn't sure why he was even included in this meeting. Technical advice she supposed.

"Augustine never said anything about the whole damn planet attacking us!" snarled Selfridge.

"Gentlemen, please," said Kim. "God knows there will be enough blame from this fiasco to go around—two or three times, I imagine. But for right now, our primary concern is the defense of this base and the people in it. All other concerns—including mining equipment and ore quotas—are secondary. As the ranking security officer, I have the authority to implement such orders, but I'd prefer to have your cooperation."

The men subsided and Kim continued. "I think that the forces we have left to us, along with the perimeter defenses, will be sufficient to fend off any likely attack. Outside of the Flux Vortex our weapons will be vastly more effective. Our seeker missiles have a 98% kill ratio and we still have several thousand of those. Automatic weapons turrets along the walls should be able to handle ground attackers. With our remaining mobile forces to back up the perimeter we should be in good shape." There, that put about as bright a face on things as possible. And it might all be crap. Pandora was teeming with life and if the enemy could command every large animal in the area to attack, well, their defenses wouldn't even be a speed bump.

"But for how long?" asked Selfridge. Damn the man. He was probably asking how long until his miners could get back to work, but inadvertently he had touched the heart of the matter: how long could they hold out?

Kim sighed. "That really is the big question. And I'm afraid there isn't any military answer to it."

"What do you mean?"

"What I mean is: if the natives have the manpower—or animal power—and the will to pursue the war in the long term, then we can't win." The look on Selfridge's face almost made this whole mess worthwhile. Kim had little use for bureaucrats and Selfridge seemed to epitomize the breed. "We simply do not have the troops, equipment or supplies for a sustained conflict. Ammunition, in particular, will be a critical factor."

"I thought you had that huge dump of ammo!" protested Selfridge.

"Over half of that was expended in the last two weeks," said Kim. "Repelling a major attack could easily use up another ten or fifteen percent. Two or three such attacks and we're done. Isn't that right, Lieutenant Asoka?" She looked to the logistics officer.

"I'm afraid so, ma'am. The original stocks were based on the expenditures reported by the first troops stationed here, which were fairly low. We were only engaged in limited patrolling and safeguarding the mine at that point. Despite the large build-up of forces during Colonel Quaritch's tenure, ammunition supplies were only increased in the same proportion. No plans were made for an extended high-intensity conflict." Kim nodded grimly and thought about the old, old saying: when it comes to making war, amateurs talk strategy, professionals talk logistics. And right now their logistical situation stank.

"But we'll be resupplied," said Selfridge desperately. "The next starship is due in only three months."

"I've seen the manifests, sir," said Asoka. "As you are aware, shipments of mining equipment to develop Site 2 have top priority. Ammunition is being shipped only in quantities based on 'normal' expenditures. I should also add that the next ship will not be bringing any additional gunships, no AMP suits, and only one hundred new security personnel. Assuming there were no changes to the schedule, it's the same with all of the other inbound ships. And I don't need to remind you that any request for substantial reinforcements will involve a ten year wait to be filled."

"And forty of our surviving troopers are scheduled to rotate home on that next ship," added the personnel officer. "We have no legal right to force them to stay."

"So what do we do?" moaned Selfridge. "I never wanted a _war_!"

"Unfortunately, we have one, sir. So, in the short-term we prepare to defend ourselves," answered Kim. "But as I said, Mr. Selfridge, we cannot win in the long-term. As I see it, we have two options. One option would be to evacuate…"

"Evacuate!" exclaimed Selfridge. "You can't be serious!"

"If the choice was between evacuation and annihilation, which would you choose?" she demanded sharply.

"What's the other option?" asked Selfridge meekly.

Kim stared right at him. "Find some way to make peace."

* * *

Norm Spellman opened his eyes and groaned. The entire left side of his body was in agony. God it hurt!

"You are awake! Do not move!" said a voice close at hand. A blue face with bright gold eyes came into his field of view. A Na'vi woman. He didn't recognize her. He turned his head slightly and saw that he was lying in the makeshift hospital that had been set up after the battle. A hundred or more Na'vi were being treated here, some were horribly burned or mangled. Cries of pain filled the air.

"Where… where's Jake?" he mumbled. But no, that was stupid, Jake was off-line back at the shack. Thanks to Quaritch, they only had one functioning link capsule. Norm had been relieved when his avatar body had been found alive. But it was badly injured, a hole blown completely through the upper chest, piercing one of the lungs. Only the extremely tough Na'vi physiology had kept it alive long enough to be found. There was an elaborate medical kit in the shack for treating the avatars. They were so expensive it only made sense to have them. So his avatar had been patched up and medicated, but it was going to be a long haul for recovery. Unfortunately, Norm was going to have to occupy it periodically to eat and check on progress. This was his first attempt. He was happy that the neural link still worked, but he had not counted on the pain.

"The Toruk Makto is sleeping," said the woman. "As you should be."

"Hungry… need to eat." The woman got up and moved away. A few moments later she returned with another woman and Norm was relieved to see that it was Neytiri.

"Normspelmon," she said. "Welcome back. I rejoice that you are able to walk among the People again."

"Thank you, though I doubt I will be doing much walking for a while."

"No, you were badly hurt in the battle. I have heard you acted with great bravery for someone who is not a warrior. This is Lanuma," she indicated the other woman. "She will be taking care of you." Norm looked from one woman to the other. Why had Neytiri said that about him fighting? She, Jake and he had already exchanged stories about their experiences. Was it for Lanuma's benefit? The other woman's expression did soften a bit.

"I see you, Lanuma," he said formally. "And thank you for your help."

"I see you, Normspelmon," she replied. "It will be an honor to tend to you. I bring food for you." She held out a wooden bowl.

Norm tried to raise his head and then gasped as a bolt of pain seared through him. Damn!

"Normspelmon," said Neytiri, bending close. "I have the medicine from the shack that Jake gave to me. He said it can ease your pain. Do you wish it now?" She held up a vial of capsules.

He did. Very much. He almost said yes, but the moans and gasps from all around him silenced his request. The drugs would work equally well on the other Na'vi. He'd seen them being brought in and some were in far worse shape than him. "N-no. I only have to be here a few hours a day and this body will sleep when I'm away no matter how much pain it's in. The others don't have that luxury. No, give the medicine to your people, Neytiri. Help them."

She nodded and touched her hand to her chest. "As you wish. Tend him well, Lanuma." She got up and moved away.

The other woman came closer and began to put food in his mouth with her fingers. "Neytiri said you are brave, Normspelmon. I can see she spoke the truth."

Two hours later Norm emerged from the link capsule. He groaned and rubbed his shoulder as he sat up. Jake was sitting there in his wheel chair. "How'd it go?" he asked.

"Oh, I'll live. We'll live, I mean," said Norm.

"Did Neytiri find you?"

"Yeah, she's waiting for you. I guess you're itching to get back, right?"

"Yeah, lots to do. There are more warriors from the other clans still pouring in. Thousands of them. A lot of them are pissed that they missed out on the battle. They want to attack Hells Gate and I have to figure out some way of holding them back. Not gonna be easy considering how hard we were _trying_ to get them riled up earlier."

"Are you sure you want to hold them back? I mean this might be our only chance to use them. If they get bored and go home what do we do then?"

"I don't know," said Jake shaking his head. "But an attack outside the Flux Vortex won't be anything like this last fight, Norm. I dated a gunship pilot for a while back when I was a Marine. She showed me what her ship could do. Instead of firing at one target at a time like last time, they can engage as many as they've got weapons. A hundred bogies show up on their screens they just hit the 'engage all' button and press the trigger. About ninety-five of those bogies are gonna go down."

"Shit…"

"Yeah. They might not have much left now, but each one is gonna be a lot more effective. I mean, with the forces that are coming in we might just be able to swamp them, but, God the cost! And even if we win, there'll be no holding back the Na'vi once they're inside the base. They'll be so angry they'll probably kill everyone, including Max and the other science geeks."

"Damn," said Norm.

"You said the other day you didn't like this soldiering thing. We'll, I'll tell you: I'm coming to hate this generaling thing."

Norm looked closely at Jake. He seemed wrung out. The physical strain on his wrecked human body and the mental strain of being responsible for everything was taking its toll. In spite of everything he had come to like the man.

"I saw plenty of dead when I was in Recon, but somehow it's different this time. Being in command… being responsible. Collecting all the wounded and the bodies…"

"Jake, it's not your fault. You didn't want this. None of us did."

"Maybe not, but we've got it now. And everyone's expecting me to know what to do. Hell! I was only a goddamn corporal!"

"What about… what about Eywa? Can she lend any more help?"

"How should I know?" Jake's frustration was spilling out now. "It's not like I can call her up on the com and order an air strike! Besides…" He faltered. "Besides, losing the animals hurts Eywa as much as losing the people hurts us."

Norm smiled. "Listen to you. Some of Grace rubbed off on you after all."

"Yeah. But come on: get out of there so I can use it."

Norm pushed himself out of the capsule and watched Jake drag himself in. He knew not to offer to help. "Speaking of Max, have you heard anything from him?"

"No, nothing. That worries me."

* * *

Dr. Max Patel looked nervously at the severe woman on the other side of the desk. He hadn't known what to think when the two mercs had politely but firmly escorted him out of his lab to this office. He was alone with her now and the door was shut. A full minute went by without her saying anything. The little sign sitting on her desk read: Capt. H. Kim.

"Uh… you wanted to see me…?" ventured Max.

"Not really. I'd much prefer to chuck you in the brig—or put you in front of a firing squad."

"What?" Max's blood went cold.

"Just so there's no doubt about where we stand, Dr. Patel…" The woman touched a key on her desktop and a video display sprang to life. Max found himself staring at his own face. He was talking:

"Jake, things are crazy here. Quaritch is rolling and there's no stopping him…" Captain Kim cut the display.

"I also have the video log from the detention area. It clearly shows you helping the rebels escape. If the former G-2 hadn't been so busy assembling information for Colonel Quaritch's attack, this would have been discovered days ago. Doctor, you are a traitor. You helped the hostiles in an attack that resulted in the deaths of nearly three hundred of your fellow human beings. Some of them were my friends. I should have you shot."

"You… you don't have the authority to do that! I… I looked it up! You aren't a real soldier and I'm a civilian! You can't…!" he looked in horror as the woman drew her pistol.

"Do you really think that means anything here and now? There's no one here to report me to, Doctor. I'm in charge, and I have the gun. However…" she put the gun away and Max's heart started beating again. "As much as it makes me sick to say it: I need your help."

"What?"

"You have means of communicating with the rebels? How?"

"Uh, there are a series of repeaters planted in the Flux Vortex. They boost the signal enough for us to get through to the research shack."

"Yes, that's what my techs thought. In fact there's plain records of the link in the communications logs but they don't seem to be working now."

"We changed the frequency when Dr. Augustine and the others left."

"I see. Well, we can find them or you can save us the trouble. But that's neither here nor there. I don't just need the link, I need you to talk to them."

"What about?"

"We want to negotiate a truce."

* * *

"Jake, get back to the shack quick," said Norm into the com-link. It was nearly a minute before Jake replied.

"I'm kind of busy right now. Why? What's up?"

"Max is calling us. He… he's got the new security commander with him. She wants to talk to you."

"Holy shit. Okay, I'll be right there. About ten minutes."

"Uh, why don't you just break the link? I mean you're already right here." He glanced at the link capsule at the other end of the shack.

"Not a good time or place for me to drop unconscious Norm. Besides, I'd rather talk to them looking like this. Can you bring a computer outside?"

"Okay, will do. See you soon." Norm clicked off and went back to the computer. Max's face was still framed in the display. "He's on his way. How are things going there, Max?"

Max looked nervously to the side. Obviously he wasn't alone. "Pretty tense here, Norm. How are things there? Where's Grace?"

A chill passed through him. Damn, he still didn't know! Shit, shit, shit! After they fled the base they had limited their communications to short updates from Max, but they had never told him what they were doing in case someone was tapping their communications. What to say? Max had worked with Grace for years before Norm even got to Pandora. But he had to tell him. Before it came out anyway. "Max… Max, I'm sorry. Grace is dead." The shock and pain on Max's face were so great he had to turn away for a moment.

"Dead? But… but how?"

"There was some shooting during our getaway. Grace was hit. We tried… the Na'vi tried to save her, but it didn't work. I'm so sorry."

"Damn it! It was Quaritch! Everyone was talking about how he went outside without a mask and was blasting away at Trudy's copter! That bastard! She was a genius! Worth a hundred of him!" Norm had never imagined gentle Max so angry. Tears streaked his face and he clenched his fists. He decided he was going to wait to tell him that Trudy was dead, too.

"Well, if it's any consolation Quaritch paid with interest. Neytiri put two arrows right through him. From the look on his face he couldn't believe he'd actually lost to a bunch of savages."

"Good! Good! I wish I had seen it! That miserable son-of-a-…"

"Doctor Patel, that's enough," came a female voice from off-camera.

"Max," said Norm, "Grace… Grace isn't really gone, either. I know it sounds crazy but… but we _uploaded_ her! Jake says she's with Eywa now!"

"What? What are you talking about?" Max looked completely dazed.

Norm was still trying to explain things to Max when Jake and Neytiri arrived. He put on a mask and grabbed the computer and hurried outside. He cringed back when the enormous _Toruk_ spread its wings and screeched. In spite of what it had done for them the ferocious creature scared the crap out of him. Jake soothed it for a moment and then came over to where Norm had the computer set up on a rock. He sat on the ground next to Neytiri. "So, what's happening?" he asked.

"Max is there—I told him about Grace—and apparently the new security commander, a woman named Kim, wants to talk to you."

"What about?"

"Seems they want a truce."

"I bet they do!" snorted Jake.

"What are you going to do?" asked Norm.

"I don't know. They're trying to buy time. I don't know if we ought to give it to them."

"Should we not hear what they have to say, my Jake?" asked Neytiri.

"Yeah, you don't have to agree to anything right now," nodded Norm.

"Right. Okay, turn on the camera." Norm did so and Max re-appeared on the display. "Hi Max, it's me, Jake."

"Hello, Jake. Good to see you," replied Max. "I got someone here who wants to talk to you. Hold on." Max's image reached toward the display and then the view shifted and a woman in uniform with short-cropped blond hair and a stern expression appeared. Norm vaguely remembered seeing her at that initial safety briefing when they first got to Pandora. She and Jake stared at each other for a moment.

"Captain Kim? I'm Jake Sully. What can I do for you?" Jakes voice had gone very flat.

"Mr. Sully, I'm the new commander of the Hells Gate security forces," replied Kim. "I've contacted you to ask you what your intentions are."

"_My_ intentions? You attacked us! You destroyed Hometree and you tried to kill the lot of us! And you want to know what _my_ intentions are?"

"Mr. Sully," said Kim and her voice sank. "There's been a lot of blood spilled on both sides. I regret that, I really do. Later there might be time for accusations. Right now I'm hoping to avoid more bloodshed. Can we talk, or is my attempt pointless?"

Jake didn't answer for a long time, but finally his ears twitched and he sighed. "All right. Talk. Max says you want a truce. Why should we agree to one? We kicked your asses the other day and we can do it again if we have to."

Now Kim was slow to reply. "Yes, you probably could," she said finally. "But at how high a cost? You were a marine once, Sully. You know what modern weapons can do. How high a butcher's bill are you willing to pay?"

"What if I say: 'As high as necessary'? What would you say to that?"

"What could I say? Except come and get us and I'll see you in hell." Kim stared straight out of the monitor and she didn't blink. "But what would you gain, Sully? We'd be gone for the moment, but how do you think a massacre like that is going to play back on Earth? Right now there are a lot of people who like the Na'vi, who want to help the Na'vi, who look on the Na'vi as 'noble savages'. But if you slaughter 2,000 humans they are going to drop the 'noble' and only see savages. How do you think they'll respond?"

"Hopefully smarter than Quaritch did."

"Quaritch was… a mistake," said Kim. "I'm not like him, Sully. And if you'll accept my offer of a truce I'm willing to send you all of the Na'vi-compatible medical supplies that are still in storage here. You must have a lot of wounded. This could help."

"Jake, that's right!" exclaimed Norm. "I'd forgotten about that. Years ago Grace tried to set up a little clinic. Right now those supplies would be a godsend." The hours Norm had spent in his avatar in the hospital had taught him all about real suffering. Jake looked at him and then at Neytiri.

"You are the Toruk Makto," said Neytiri. "We will obey your decision."

Jake shook his head. "I can't make a decision like that on my own. " He looked back at the monitor. "Captain, I'll agree to a three-day cease-fire while we consider your offer. I'll get back to you."

Kim didn't look happy, but she nodded. "All right, I will keep all of my forces confined to the immediate vicinity of Hells Gate if you will keep yours at least ten klicks away from the perimeter. Oh, my duty requires me to ask: Did any of our people survive the battle? Are you holding any prisoners?"

"We have no prisoners, Captain. We found one man in the wreckage of a gunship who was still alive, but he did not survive the night."

"I see. Very well, I will expect to hear from you in three days. Kim, out." The picture vanished. Jake sagged and hung his head. Neytiri reached out and put an arm around him.

"What will you do now, my love?"

"This concerns everyone. Send a message to all the war leaders. We will meet tomorrow night and decide."

* * *

Parker Selfridge flicked at the chunk of Unobtainium floating in its magnetic field on his desk. It spun around for a moment and then resumed its previous orientation. The room-temperature superconductor was revolutionizing technology back on Earth. Computers, transport, power production, there were a thousand places where the material could lead to a quantum improvement.

But only if it was available in bulk.

Thousands of tons had been sent home already, but millions more were needed. RDF Corporation had promised that those millions would be arriving. Whole new industries were gearing up in anticipation. The ore had to flow.

But right now, no ore was flowing. None at all. The excavators were silent, the earthmovers parked. The people who ran them were getting refresher training on using small arms instead of digging ore.

And Parker Selfridge was the man who would be held responsible. He had been sent to Pandora—twenty-six _trillion_ miles from home—to maintain and expand ore production. That was his mission and no excuses would be accepted for failure. But it wasn't his fault! That idiot Quaritch was to blame! The muscle-bound moron had _wanted_ a war! Selfridge could see that now. Quaritch was supposed to be acting in the interest of the Corporation, but he had only been acting for himself: one last chance for military glory. The fool! All his talk about minimal casualties and intimidating the Na'vi and getting them to move without fuss had just been to lull him into giving him the green light. Selfridge had been against the use of force! He had! But now it had all gone to pieces. Quaritch was dead—and may he burn in hell!—and there was no one left to blame but Selfridge. Losing the shuttle and failing to open Site 2 alone were enough to ruin him. But having to shut down Site 1, too… That would be the end. He might as well just go out for a stroll—without his breath mask.

With a snarl he grabbed the piece of Unobtanium and hurled it against the wall. It made a shockingly loud noise and several people in the control room looked at him in surprise through the glass. He glared at them and they quickly turned away and pretended to be busy. And surely they must be pretending since with everything shut down, what did they have to do?

Slowly he got up and collected the pieces of the shattered Unobtanium. In its unrefined state it was remarkably brittle. But this handful of shards was worth over a million dollars. He scooped up what he could and dumped them back into the magnetic field and watched them swirl around until they found a new equilibrium. The strange thought struck him that his whole world had been shattered in just such a fashion. Could a new equilibrium be found?

He was still musing when Captain Kim entered his office. She didn't look too happy and somehow his heart was able to sink another notch. "Well? Did you talk with them?" he asked.

Kim walked across the room, her boots crunching on $100,000 of Unobtanium fragments, and sank into a chair without being invited—she was showing less and less deference towards him and it rankled. "Yes," she said. "I talked with Sully and he's agreed to a three-day cease fire."

"That's all? What happens after the three days?"

"I don't know. He said he needs to confer with the other Na'vi before he can make any permanent agreement."

"But he said there could be an agreement? Peace between us? What about the mine?"

"Don't get your hopes up, sir. He only said he had to confer. Three days from now he might tell us that the Na'vi had agreed to just wipe us out." Kim paused and pulled a computer chip from her tunic pocket and laid it on his desk. "Therefore, I've had my staff draw up these evacuation plans. As a courtesy to you, I'm inviting any comments or suggestions you might have."

"Evacuation! How can we possibly evacuate? There's only one starship in orbit right now! It can't hold everyone!"

"Well, actually, it very nearly can. As you know, ever since the first base was constructed here there have been more people arriving than leaving. They come in their cryo-capsules and since the Unobtainium is vastly more valuable on a kilo-for-kilo basis than the cryo capsules, we generally strip out any capsules not needed for returning personnel to make room for more ore. Those extra capsules have just been piling up at the orbital station. My people estimate that if we pull every non-essential item out of the ship we could fit nearly a thousand capsules aboard. The rest could be set up at the orbital station until the next ship arrives."

Selfridge stared at the chip. Evacuation! Abandon everything to the enemy? Twenty-five years of effort lost. Disaster. But if the Na'vi attacked and overran them, everything would be lost anyway—including their lives.

"Isn't there any other choice?"

"That will depend on Jake Sully and the Na'vi. And on you, Mr. Selfridge. What are you willing to offer them to let us to stay?"

"What _can_ I offer them?" exploded Selfridge. "Shiny beads? Pretty bits of cloth? Sully said it himself: we don't have anything they want!"

"Except the land," said Kim. "They want their land back."

"Well that's sort of a problem, isn't it?" he sneered sarcastically. "How can we get the ore without digging through their precious land?"

"_Your_ problem, sir. Under the emergency sections of the base regulations, my only problem is to keep everyone alive. If the only way, in my judgment, to do that is to evacuate, then that is what I'm going to order."

Selfridge stared at the woman and realized that there was nothing he could do or say that would influence her. In her own way, she was just as much a fanatic as Quaritch had been. Soldiers!

"On another matter, sir," continued Kim, "I've been in touch with the head of Communications and she told me that my report on the current situation had not been transmitted to Earth—on your order. May I ask why?"

"Uh… well, because the situation is still in flux. I didn't see any reason to start a panic with a lot of bad news when there's still a chance to salvage the situation. And since it takes over four years for the message to get home, what difference will it make if we delay it a few days?"

"In a few days we might all be dead. But no matter. Under my emergency authority I countermanded your orders. The report is now on its way."

"God! Do you realize the sort of economic chaos that might cause?" gasped Selfridge.

"The report is in code, sir and for the eyes of the head of Corporate Security only. I seriously doubt he'll be passing it on to the news services or the stockholders. But I consider it vital that an accurate report of what happened here be sent. We might be wiped out, but people will be coming back here someday. They need to know what they are facing."

"What do you mean?"

"Based on what Dr. Patel was able to explain to me of Dr. Augustine's research, it seems that we are facing something totally unprecedented here on Pandora. I don't claim to understand the details, but put simply, the entire planet is like a single, enormous organism…"

"Oh for God's sake!" spat Selfridge. "Don't tell me _you_ are swallowing this 'Eywa the life goddess' crap that Augustine was gushing!"

"I'm not a scientist, sir, but what Dr. Patel says is consistent with what we have seen. The life on the planet is linked together somehow. Like an organism. An organism with a consciousness. Or at the very least, an organism with a powerful immune system. Our recent activities have triggered that immune system and it is treating us like an infection. We aren't just fighting the Na'vi, we are fighting every living thing on the planet."

"My God," hissed Selfridge. "What do we do?"

"For the moment, we survive. I'm taking every possible step to ensure that. In the long run, I don't know. Not my department, thank God. Maybe the Na'vi will be willing to negotiate and maybe not. Hell, if this immune system theory is correct it might not even be _possible_ to turn it off again. But whatever the future holds, it is going to be different from what has come before." Kim leaned back and sighed.

"But for the next three days, all we can do is wait."

* * *

Norm emerged from the shower and quickly dried and dressed himself. The great meeting would be starting soon and Jake wanted him to attend. As a Na'vi. He glanced out the window at the incredible view of the Halleluiah Mountains. He wasn't in the half of the shack they had moved, he was in the half they had left behind at Site 26. It had two undamaged link capsules and—thank God—a working shower and kitchen. Jake had dropped him off here after a terrifying—and exhilarating—ride on the back of the Toruk.

He wolfed down some food while he checked everything on the link capsule he'd be using. He was a little leery of being completely alone up here, but there wasn't much choice. He sure hoped that Jake would be back to get him later. Satisfied that everything was in order, he climbed in, shut the top and closed his eyes.

"Normspelmon, you are awake?"

He opened his eyes and saw Lanuma hovering over him. He smiled. "I see you, Lanuma."

"And I see you. How do you feel?"

"Ow, still pretty sore, I'm afraid. But better, I think."

Lanuma held out her hand and a tiny white capsule sat in the palm. "The Toruk Makto commands that you take this. He says that you must attend the meeting and give him counsel and your mind must be free of pain." Norm only hesitated a moment before taking the capsule and swallowing it. While he waited for it to take effect, he ate and drank the food and drink Lanuma offered him.

"Where is the meeting going to be held?" he asked.

"In the glen beyond the Well of Souls. But it will not start for some time yet. You need not hurry."

"Good. This body is still very weak."

"I will help you when we go."

"Thank you."

They were silent for a bit as he ate, but Lanuma's eyes never left him. Finally, she spoke again. "May I ask some questions of you, Normspelmon?"

"Of course. Ask anything you like."

"You are really a Dreamwalker? You have another body, a Skypeople body, hidden away somewhere?"

"Yes… yes, that's true."

Lanuma's ears twitched and her tail jerked about. "Neytiri has tried to explain that to me, but it seems very strange. She says that it is the same even for the Toruk Makto. Why do you do this?"

"Many reasons, I suppose," answered Norm. "One is that the air on the world we come from is different. We cannot breathe the air here. We would die if we tried. Coming in this form, we can breathe the air and drink the water and talk to you as people do. Another reason is so that you will not fear our strangeness."

"But if you come to talk, only, why are you—the other Skypeople, I mean—why are they so cruel? They kill and destroy and bring much sorrow. You do not seem evil to me, Normspelmon, but you are of the Skypeople. I do not understand."

Norm looked away and felt ashamed. How to explain? How could he explain what was happening in a way that made sense to this woman? He wasn't sure it even made any sense to him. "We… we come from far away, Lanuma. Very far away. So far away that if you ran as fast as you could, or rode an Ikran as fast as it could fly for a whole lifetime you would not reach my world. Not in a hundred lifetimes."

"It is hard to believe such a thing."

"Yes, but it is true. You have seen the Sky People machines. You have mostly seen our machines for killing and destroying, but some of the machines are very wonderful. They can do good things and make the lives of our people easier. You know that the Sky People dig in the ground for the gray rocks?"

"Yes, though none know why. The gray rocks are too weak and crumbly to make good tools."

"The Sky People can do many wondrous things with the gray rocks. We also have machines that can see things very far away. We could see this world from as far away as our home. Other machines could even see that the gray rocks were here. So some of us decided that we would come here to get the gray rocks, for we had none on our home world. This was a very hard thing to do, even for the Sky People. Many, many people had to work very hard for many years to build the machines to carry us here. We never would have come except for the gray rocks. But Lanuma, as clever as our machines were, they did not see the Na'vi. When we arrived and found you here it was a great surprise. We expected to find the rocks, but not you."

The Na'vi woman nodded and her eyes were very wide.

"At first we were not sure what to do. Some said that you should be left alone. That this world belonged to you and we had no right to take any of it. But others wanted the gray rocks. They wanted them very badly. They said that they had worked so hard to come here and get the rocks that we should not stop just for the sake of the Na'vi. Still others were happy to find you here. For you are not so unlike us and we rejoiced to find that we were not alone. There was much argument over what to do. Finally, those who wanted the gray rocks had their way and they came down to your world. Some of those who wanted to meet the Na'vi as brothers and sisters were allowed to come, too. I am one of them. So… so is the Toruk Makto." Norm mentally grimaced at this bending of the truth on Jake's behalf. He knew full well that at first Jake didn't give a damn about the Na'vi. That he could change so completely still amazed him. Lanuma was still staring at him.

"I hear your words, Normspelmon, but their meaning is hard to grasp. But Neytiri told me that you fought against the Skypeople in the great battle. You fought against your own kind to help us. Why?"

"I fought against the ones who would do so much harm just for the gray rocks. Not all my kind are evil, Lanuma! Some are greedy and stupid and cruel, but not all. Tell me: are there not times when Na'vi make mistakes or do foolish things?"

Lanuma laughed. It was the first time he had heard her laugh and her voice had a nicely musical ring to it. "Oh yes! Many times! I could tell you stories of my brother!"

Norm smiled. "You see? We are not so different then after all."

"I'm glad I asked you to be here, Norm," said a voice from behind him. He tried to twist around, but he just couldn't bend that way with his wound and bandages. A moment later Jake stepped in front of him.

"How long have you been standing there?"

"Long enough. You explained things better than I ever could. I want you to explain them again for the war chiefs. And I want your help in deciding what to do."

"I'll do whatever I can, Jake, but I'm not one of the People. They aren't likely to believe my words."

"Well, you will be speaking as the counselor to the Toruk Makto, that ought to give them some weight."

"We can hope." Norm glanced back at Lanuma who was staring with a puzzled look on her face. He and Jake had been talking in English, and apparently the Na'vi woman didn't understand. "Lanuma has been taking good care of me."

"I know. She… she lost her mate in the fighting, Norm."

"Oh hell… I didn't know." He looked at the Na'vi woman in awe. "She has every reason to hate me and yet she took care of me. Damn, they're good people, Jake! We have to help them!"

"Yeah. I even miss Tsu'tey. There's got to be some way to keep a lot more of them from getting killed."

"I wish I knew what it was. Is it time for the meeting?"

"Yeah, time to go. Here let me help you up." Jake moved in and gently grasped Norm's avatar. Lanuma came to his other side and together they slowly raised Norm to his feet. The painkiller was working by now, but the avatar's legs were weak and wobbly. Step by step they made their way through the hospital where dozens of Na'vi were still being treated. Norm winced at the sight of some the burn victims. The human weapons could be devastating. And if they launched an all-out attack on Hells Gate, there could be ten times as many wounded here soon.

The sun was setting and Pandora's enormous primary, Polyphemus, filled half the sky as they slowly walked past the Well of Souls. Hundreds, thousands of Na'vi were gathered all about. "Cripes, you weren't kidding about them pouring in, Jake. How many?"

"I don't know. Ten thousand, maybe. Still more coming. Just feeding everyone is going to be a problem before long. Most of the latest have come riding Ikrans and feeding _them_ is going to be an even bigger problem! Whatever we decide to do, we'll have to do it soon."

They climbed up a low hill and then down into a grove of small trees. In the center was a fire and seated around it were a few dozen Na'vi. They wore the elaborate braids and ornaments of war chiefs. Hundred more ringed the grove at a respectful distance. They bowed and touched their chests as the Toruk Makto passed through them. The war chiefs rose as they neared and they all greeted Jake respectfully. Neytiri was waiting there with her mother. She indicated a spot for Norm and Lanuma helped lower him down. He felt lightheaded, the avatar was still terribly weak.

Jake said formal words of greeting to the others and then got down to business. Neytiri was close by his side, translating when he didn't have the right words. "Brothers and sisters of the Na'vi, we have won a great victory and sent a strong message to the Sky People. But the war has not ended and we must now decide what to do next. The Sky People hide in their fortress and ask that we make peace with them. They do this only because they are weak and they know we are strong." This brought a high-pitched trilling sound, not only from the war chiefs but from many others around the glen.

"But even in their weakness, they still have much strength. We defeated them in the battle because we fought them here, on our own ground. Even then we lost many brave men and women to the Sky People's terrible weapons. You need to believe me when I tell you that defending their fortress their weapons will be even more terrible. Many, many of us will die if we attack them. You have agreed to follow me into battle and I am honored by your confidence and courage. But I will not willingly lead so many to their deaths unless it is the will of all the Na'vi people. I have asked you here tonight to seek your counsel. The Sky People beg for peace. What shall our answer be?"

This brought shouted answers from nearly everyone seated around the circle. Norm had trouble following what was said, but the number of knives and bows being waved about gave him a pretty good idea of the general feelings. Eventually things settled down and the war chiefs began to speak in turn.

"My own son was slain in the battle by the cowardly weapons of the Skypeople!" said one angrily. "I would have my vengeance upon them!"

"I and my warriors did not arrive in time for the first fight," said another. "We demand a chance to gain honor in battle against the Skypeople."

"When a nantang is raiding your herds you cannot be satisfied just to wound the beast," said the chief of the Horse clans. "He will come back, more dangerous than ever! You must hunt him down and finish him!" Many agreed with this. Norm's spirits fell. The overwhelming opinion seemed to be in favor of attacking Hells Gate. But then another chief spoke. He was older than many of the war chiefs, but he was still strong and fit.

"My heart is divided," he said quietly and everyone had to hush themselves in order to hear. "I have seen the terrible power of the Skypeople's weapons. I have been to the hospital and sat beside my sister's son who lies there even now, much of his body burned black. Any here who speak lightly of war should go there and look! I have no wish to see more of our people killed or maimed in such a fashion. But I have also been to where the Omaticaya people's home tree once stood. It is a pile of cinders! The earth for many bowshots around is blackened and covered with ash. The Skypeople's machines stand idle now, but I have seen how they had started to rend the ground and tear huge holes. It is a crime against Eywa! I have no wish for more bloodshed, but the Skypeople must be stopped! If battle is the only way to do that, then so be it." The man's words dampened the ardor of the others and they fell silent. At this point Jake stood up.

"Before we speak more I want to have my friend and counselor, Normspelmon, tell you about the Skypeople. Most of you are from far off and have had no contact with them. It would be easy to see them as simply evil demons, but it is much more complex than that. He was badly wounded in the battle, so forgive him if he remains seated. Norm?"

Startled, it took Norm a few moments to gather his wits and try to remember what he had said to Lanuma that had seemed to impress Jake so much. He stumbled through it as best he could and he had every persons' rapt attention. "And another thing you need to understand," he continued, "is that the Sky People, strange as they might seem, are more like the Na'vi than different. Not just in the shape of their bodies, but in the content of their hearts. Their hearts hold the same love and hate, anger and compassion, as your own. The Sky People in their fortress have mates and children and parents who wait for them on their home world. If you should attack and kill them all, it would create much sorrow—and even more anger—on the world of the Sky People. You wish to see them gone from your world and that is surely just. But if you spill so much blood, it will mean that there can never be peace. More Sky People will come. More and more and they will bring even more terrible weapons. And this time they will not come for the gray rocks: they will come to avenge their dead!" Even as he said the words, Norm realized their awful truth. The RDA could spin such a massacre into a green light to use whatever force they needed on Pandora. They could come down here and just blast the Na'vi out. Hell, they might even use nukes! The Unobtainium would still be there after the dust settled. With no Na'vi left it would be so much simpler. The thought made him sick to his stomach and he swayed against Lanuma.

"Norm, are you okay?" asked Jake.

"He should rest, Toruk Makto,' said Lanuma. "You ask too much of him."

"No, it's all right," said Norm, swallowing bile. "I can stay. I have to stay. Jake, Jake we have to find a way to stop the killing. We _have_ to!"

"Yeah, we do. And you've given me an idea. But, Norm, I don't know a damn thing about science or about this star system. Tell me: is the Unobtainium only found here on Pandora? What about those other moons we see up there?" He gestured to where a small globe hung against the backdrop of the huge gas giant.

"No…," said Norm, slowly. He was a bio-chemist, not a geologist, but he knew a good bit about the Alpha Centauri A system. "It's not just here. It can be found on all of the planetary bodies and even in some of the asteroid belts and ring systems. Why?"

"Maybe it's a carrot I can offer the Sky People. But if it's already up there, why did they insist on coming down here for it?"

"I don't know, I guess it must have been easier than trying to mine in vacuum or zero-G. I mean we might not be able to breathe Pandora's air, but at least humans don't need space suits to survive. I'm no expert on mining, but it seems to me that it would be a lot cheaper to do it the way they did."

"But they don't absolutely have to come here to get the Unobtainium. Good. Thanks, Norm." He turned away and looked at Neytiri and took her hand. "Your words come to my heart more than any other, my love. You have said nothing so far. Tell me what you think."

The Na'vi woman looked down at the ground for a long time. The war chiefs were quietly whispering among themselves. Finally, Neytiri looked up at Jake. "The Skypeople have done us much harm and have much to answer for. But Norm has opened my eyes. They are different and many of them are wicked fools, but they are still people as we are. We should offer them mercy if they will take it. That is what I think, my Jake."

Jake nodded and faced the chiefs again. "My friends," he said, shifting from English back to Na'vi, "I hear your words and I share your anger toward the Sky People. But our actions must be for the best of the Na'vi. Not just ourselves, but our children's children and generations yet to be born. We fight now in a just war. But war is never to be sought gladly. We must try to end this war. And as Normspelmon has told us, to kill all the Skypeople will not end the war, but instead make it grow worse." Jake paused for a moment and his tail twitched. He took a deep breath.

"So, this is what I propose we should do: We will tell the Skypeople to leave our world. We will tell them to board their great ships, take whatever of their machines they wish, and leave. Perhaps in some future time we will welcome them back as friends, but for now they must leave. We shall give them this offer to leave with their lives. But if they refuse, then we shall have no choice but to force them at the point of our knives!"

A great cheer erupted and the war chiefs sprang to their feet. But Jake just slumped down next to Norm.

"And may Eywa forgive us if we have to."

* * *

Parker Selfridge twitched when his office communicator pinged. He moved to answer it when he caught sight of Captain Kim waving to him through the glass. She'd been prowling the command center all morning waiting for the Na'vi reply. Apparently it had finally come. He got to his feet and moved through the door to stand next to the Captain.

"Is it Sulley?"

"Yes. Okay, open the channel." A second later the screen came to life and he was looking at Jake Sulley's avatar. Selfridge clamped his jaw. This was all Sulley's fault! The traitor!

"Captain Kim," said Sulley.

"Mr. Sulley," replied Kim. "Do you have a reply to our proposal?"

"You never really made a proposal, Captain. You offered us medical supplies in return for an apparently open-ended truce. You didn't say a word about what the future relations between humans and Na'vi would be."

"Well, no, that's true," said Kim. "At the time, my primary concern was to halt the fighting. But Mr. Selfridge is here and if you are willing to begin negotiations I'm sure that we can come to some sort of…"

"It doesn't matter," interrupted Sulley. "There aren't gonna be any negotiations."

"What?" cried Selfridge, his heart sinking. "Why not?"

"Because there is nothing to discuss. We want you to leave. Leave our world and go home. This is our world, not yours. You have no right to be here and we want you out of here. I'm told there is Unobtanium on the other moons or out in space. Go mine that. We don't care if you do. But leave this world and leave us alone."

"It would cost ten times as much to mine it that way!" squawked Selfridge.

"Then you can charge ten times as much for it," replied Sulley, and he actually smiled.

"So, you are giving us an ultimatum," said Kim. Her voice was toneless and her face unreadable.

"Yeah. We realize that you can't pack up and leave over night, but you must leave. There's a starship in orbit right now. We want to see you start sending people up to it in no more than three days. We will send some of our people to observe."

"That's it?" snarled Selfridge. "That's your offer? Well you can take your offer and…"

"Mr. Selfridge," said Captain Kim sharply. "Control yourself. All right Mr. Sulley, you've told us what you want. We need to consider it just as you needed to consider my offer. We will get back in touch with you in three days…"

"Two days," said Sulley. "You have fewer people to talk to and a much simpler decision. In three days you start leaving or we will attack. In the meantime we will keep the cease fire. Sulley out." The screen went blank.

"Why that miserable son-of-a-bitch!" cried Selfridge. "Just who the hell does he think he is?"

"He thinks," said Kim with a sigh, "that he's the man in charge of over ten thousand Na'vi warriors. And he's right, he is. Well, we've come to the final hand and he's called our bluff. Time to cut our losses and get out."

"You mean evacuate? No! We can't do that!" Selfridge felt the panic rising in him. For all the bad news and gloom of the last few days he never really thought it would come to this. Something would happen to make it all right.

"There's no choice, sir. Our military situation is untenable. If we stay and fight and the enemy presses his attack we risk being wiped out to the last man. That would certainly be a disaster and under the emergency regulations I have full authority to act to prevent a disaster. I'm sorry, but we will put the evacuation plans into effect immediately, there's no sense in waiting. Now if you'll excuse me, sir, I have a lot to do."

Selfridge opened his mouth to protest, but Kim had already turned away. He stared for a few moments and then stumbled back to his office, locked the door and collapsed into his chair. He opaqued the glass and put his head in his hands.

He wasn't sure how long he had been sitting there when he hears the door slide open. He looked up in surprise as a man walked in. The door had been locked… "Who are you? How did you get in here." he demanded. The man didn't answer, but shut the door behind him.

Now he knew the man: he was one of the communications technicians. He couldn't remember his name, but he saw him in the control room every day. "What are you doing here?

"

The man reached into a pocket and flipped a computer disk at him. One side of it was embossed with a symbol he recognized immediately. "Read it," said the man who plopped into a chair and folded his arms. Numbly, Selfridge did as he was told, setting the chip on the read pad. The monitor filled with information and he quickly scanned through it, growing more excited and nervous by the second. He got to the end and looked up.

"So… so you are taking charge?"

"It seems I have to," said the man. "Any objections?"

"No! No, of course not. What the hell took you so long?"

* * *

Captain Harriet Kim was issuing orders when the summons came from Selfridge. She sighed. What the hell did that twit want now? Probably to try and talk her out of the evacuation again. For a moment she was tempted to ignore him, but she really wanted his cooperation. This was going to be difficult enough as it was. And his office was only a few steps away. She stepped over to the door and was mildly surprised that he had opaqued the glass. Normally, he always liked to keep an eye on things. The door opened and she went through. She was even more surprised to see that Selfridge wasn't alone. Com-tech Hartranf was with him. "You wanted to see me, sir?

"Not me," said Selfridge and she'd swear he was smiling. "Him." He indicated Hartranf. She frowned and then raised an eyebrow.

"Technician…?" He took a step forward and slowly took a small object from a pocket. It was an ID card. It had his picture and info-strip but the name on it said: Lomax.

"Captain Kim, I am RDA special security agent Fred Lomax. "I've just informed Administrator Selfridge that I'm taking command of this base and all personnel on Pandora."

"Really? On whose authority?"

"RDA Chief of Security Jeremiah Suvarov. Our boss."

"Ah," said Kim nodding slowly. "You are our much speculated-on watchdog. You won't mind if I ask to see your orders?"

"They're fully valid," said Selfridge. "But see for yourself." he swung a monitor around to face her. She quickly glanced over it, not sure if she was angry or relieved. By the time she got to the end she decided she was relieved. Someone to pass the buck to! She straightened up and faced Lomax

.

"Very well, sir, I turn command over to you. May I ask what my duties are now? Or am I under arrest?"

"Not at all, Captain," said Lomax, who seemed quite relaxed now. She supposed he probably had a concealed gun to shoot her with if she'd tried to resist. That was his job after all: to make sure that the tremendous power in the hands of people like Selfridge or Quaritch—or now herself—didn't go too much to their heads. Considering the incredible value of this operation—and how impossibly remote it was—it was inevitable that the Corporation would have secret watchers to make sure nothing happened. Kim bitterly wondered where Lomax had been while Quaritch was running things into the crapper?

"No," continued Lomax, "you've done as good a job as could be expected considering the very difficult circumstances. But I've come to the conclusion that the current crisis is beyond your experience to handle. Nothing dishonorable, Captain. Still, I have to believe that you are giving up much too easily considering the stakes."

"The stakes are all of our lives, sir."

"More than that, Captain, far more than that. First and foremost is the Unobtanium, of course. A long-term disruption of the flow of ore to Earth would be an economic catastrophe, not only to RDA, but to the entire planet. The resulting chaos would lead to a loss of life a thousand times worse than what we might suffer here."

"As Sulley pointed out, sir, we can still get Unobtainium from this star system," said Kim.

"No, Captain. Considering the time delays in communication and transport of new mining equipment it might be two decades before deliveries to Earth could resume. That's unacceptable. No, the mine right here must continue production. I agree with your decision to abandon Site Two. Under the circumstances trying to defend that as well as Hells Gate and Site One would stretch our resources far too thin. But I believe we can successfully defend here and Site One and that is what we will do. Later, when we receive reinforcements we can recover Site Two."

"Sir," said Kim, anxiety building in her gut, "If the hostiles attack in full force I don't think we can hold…"

"You overestimate their strength, Captain. The data from the battle clearly show that when faced with overwhelming firepower the Na'vi will break and run. All their new arrivals have never even seen our weapons in action. An all-out attack will be met with an all-out response that will kill thousands of them. That will break their will, Captain. They'll run and they won't come back. They're savages, not disciplined soldiers. And that's the second reason we have to stay: we will not let them see _us_ run!"

Kim stared at Lomax in horror. He was actually insisting they risk annihilation over a point of _honor_? "Sir, what about the native wildlife? They were a decisive factor in the battle. We know so little about their capabilities. And the records show that _they_ didn't run, even in the face of all our firepower."

"Not a fair test, Captain," said Lomax with a dismissive gesture. "They attacked by surprise while our forces were disorganized. The situation deteriorated so quickly it's impossible to tell if the animals would have broken or not. And have there been any incidents of the wildlife attacking us since then?"

"Not in any organized fashion, no sir."

"So, it's entirely possible the whole think was a fluke. Perhaps the area Quaritch was trying to attack was some sort of animal mating ground or nesting area and they simply responded instinctively by defending their turf. There's nothing to prove that the wildlife is in any way controlled by the Na'vi or that it could be directed against us here."

Kim was taken back. She didn't agree with Lomax's analysis, but she couldn't really refute it, either. Without the animals, they did have a chance. A slim one, but still a chance. "Very well, sir. What are you orders?"

"Cancel the evacuation and continue to prepare our defenses. Site One will remain shut down for the time being until we see how the hostiles react, but I want you to prepare plans for resuming the defense of the mine once things settle down. Oh, there is one other thing: This Dr. Patel: you have clear evidence that he helped Sulley and the others against us. Why isn't he locked up?"

"I've ensured that he cannot cause any more mischief, sir. He has no communications with Sulley."

"Even so, I'd rather see him in detention."

"If you insist, sir. But I have put him to work collecting and organizing all of Dr. Augustine's records. He is the one most familiar with them and his devotion to Dr. Augustine will ensure he does a thorough job. I felt that it was critical that everything known about this supposed 'planetary network' be sent back to Earth. In the event that we are… that we do fail here, that information could be vital for any future expedition returning to Pandora."

Lomax was silent for a moment but then he nodded. "All right, I concur with your assessment. And if we don't have to guard him, that's one more man on the line. But keep an eye on him! In fact, I think you've named your own job: in addition to your other duties you are now in charge of internal security for the base. Frankly, all the scientists are under suspicion. I want no disruptions, Captain, understand?"

"Yes, sir."

"Good. Carry on, Captain."

* * *

"So what's going on?" asked Max Patel. "First we're told that we are evacuating then half an hour later the order is cancelled!" His co-workers in the lab looked as puzzled as he felt. Most were staring at half-filled storage containers, apparently trying to decide whether to unpack them or not.

"Dunno, Max," said Cynthia Sundstrom. "There's rumors of some sort of shake-up at the top, but I don't know if it's true."

"Max, we _have_ to get an answer about the avatars!" exclaimed Pablo Desante, walking up to him. "If we pull out we can't just leave them, they'll die!"

"Did you ask the transport officer?"

"Yes! But he just said that unless they'll fit in a cryo-capsule—which they won't—then he doesn't have any orders for them!" Pablo was nearly frantic. Max had been having similar conversations with the other avatar-drivers all week. The avatars were grown in special tanks on the trip out from Earth. No one had ever given any thought about sending them back. He knew how… _attached_ the drivers became to their alternate selves. Telling them to just leave them would be like telling a parent to leave their child behind. But even if they could somehow get them back to Earth what would they _do_ with them? Max had no clue what to say.

"Well, just stay calm. If we're not evacuating there's nothing to worry about, okay?" Pablo did not look the least bit consoled, but he went away with a frown on his face. He looked around, trying to figure out what he ought to be doing. Before he could decide, the loudspeaker came to life:

"Attention. Attention, all personnel. Please go to a communications panel. There will be an important announcement from the base commander in two minutes." The message repeated about six times. Cynthia turned on the big wall panel and everyone turned to face it. After a few seconds the screen lit up and he saw a man who he scarcely recognized flanked by Parker Selfridge and Captain Kim.

"Who's that?" demanded a half-dozen people.

"Good afternoon, everyone," said the man. "I'm Fred Lomax. I work for Corporate Security and under the authority of my special orders, I have taken command of this base and all personnel on or in orbit about Pandora. Administrator Selfridge and Captain Kim have acknowledged my authority to do so." He paused and nodded to the pair. Selfridge actually smiled and nodded back. Captain Kim was like a statue.

"He's a goddam spook!" cried Cynthia.

"Yeah, I sat next to him at lunch yesterday!" exclaimed Karl Meyerson.

"You were probably all a bit confused about the recent orders and counter-orders," continued Lomax, "but that's to be expected during an unprecedented situation like the one in which we find ourselves. But, I want to assure you that everything is completely under control now. I also want to assure you that there will be no evacuation of Pandora. We are here to stay. The enemy may have won a victory, but we will surely win the war. Our position here is very strong and we can hold it as long as necessary. Help is on the way. But in any event, we will not let these savages see us run! We will stand here and fight like humans! We will fight to the last round of ammunition! And we will be victorious! Thank you very much." The screen went blank.

A loud babble of voices swept through the lab, everyone voicing their opinion at once. But Max said nothing and a feeling of dread and gloom filled him. More fighting. This Lomax guy sounded nearly as fanatic as Quaritch. And Jake wasn't going to back down, either. What a mess! But there wasn't a thing he could do about it.

Was there?

_We will fight to the last round of ammunition…_ Max recalled that first briefing with Captain Kim before they had caught on to him.

His eyes turned toward the windows overlooking the base.

* * *

Norm looked at the man on the computer screen and tried to remember where he had seen him before. Where was Captain Kim?

"Who are you?" demanded Jake, who was sitting cross-legged in front of the computer.

"Ah, Sulley," said the man. "I'm Fred Lomax and I'm now in command here. I'm just calling to say that we've reviewed your demands and find them completely unreasonable. We're staying and there's nothing more to discuss on that matter."

"Oh really?" replied Jake. The expression on his face didn't change much, but his tail was thrashing around in agitation. Fortunately, the camera wasn't going to pick that up. "You are not leaving me much choice, Mr. Lomax."

"Come now! You still have several choices. The best one would be to tell your blue friends to all go home and leave us alone here. If you do, we'll give you those medical supplies that were discussed earlier and I promise you we will not venture beyond an area twenty kilometers in radius from Hells Gate. We do realize now that the demolition of the natives' tree house was a mistake. We will withdraw all of our equipment from that area."

"The damage is done, Lomax! The tree is destroyed along with a lot of lives! You expect us to forgive you for that?"

"What you need to ask, Sulley, is whether you'll be able to forgive _yourself_ if you get about ten thousand of your precious blueskins killed trying to shove us out? Come on, man, a lot of people on both sides got killed during the last few weeks. Let's just bury the hatchet and move on."

Jake stared in silence for a long time. A small smile grew on Lomax's face. Norm watched and thought that if Lomax could see Jake's tail, he wouldn't be smiling. "Well?" said Lomax after the silence had dragged on. "Shall I pack up those medical supplies for you? What do you say, Sulley?"

"I say that you've made the decision a lot easier for me…" said Jake finally.

"Well good!" said Lomax. "I'm glad to see that you have the good sense to…" He was abruptly cut off when Jake flattened back his ears, bared his fangs, and hissed. Lomax actually flinched back, away from the camera.

"You don't care any more for the lives of your own people than you care about the Na'vi, do you, Lomax?" snarled Jake. "All you care about is your corporate profits. Thanks for reminding me of that! Pack up your bags and get out, Lomax! We're coming to retake what's ours and you damn well better get of the way!" Lomax's astonished face showed for one more second before Jake savagely hit the disconnect button, tumbling the computer to the ground.

The Toruk Makto just stared straight ahead, breathing hard with his fists clenched. Neytiri came to his side and put her arm across his shoulders. "What have I done?" he whispered.

"Exactly what you had to do, Jake," said Norm. "The only thing you could do. If we let them stay it will be the end. They'll bring in more people and more weapons until there will be no chance of facing them. Twenty kilometer radius! Bullshit! As soon as they have the strength they'll go wherever they damn please! This is the only chance we are going to get. You did the right thing."

Jake's breathing slowly went back to normal and he nodded. "Right. Well, it looks like we have a battle to plan. I really think I'd like to do a better job than I did last time. I lie awake at night thinking of all the things I could have done differently."

"Water under the bridge, Jake," said Norm. "No doubt this is going to be a tough fight, but we still have a few tricks up our sleeves. How much ordnance have we salvaged from the battle?"

Jake perked up a bit at that. "Quite a lot. A couple hundred grenades, a bunch of small arms. We're gonna have to cut off the trigger guards to allow a Na'vi finger to fit, but we can do that. Not a lot of ammo for the small arms, unfortunately. We pulled a couple dozen missiles out of the wrecked gunships. We have no way to target or launch them, but I think that by strapping a grenade to each one we could use them as bombs. We've also got eight of the big 30mm autocannons the AMP suits use and a few thousand rounds of ammo. They're too big and heavy for even a Na'vi to carry, but maybe we can rig up some sort of sled to pull them along. Not sure how we're gonna aim them, but they could do some real damage if they hit anything. Best of all we've got four of the shoulder-launched Scorpion missiles. They are simple to use and could bring down a gunship. I gotta figure out the best way to use those. We've got about a hundred com-link, too, so that will help with communications."

"Are the Na'vi willing to use this stuff?"

"The younger ones seem pretty keen to give it a try. Of course we don't have the ammo to give them much training, but it will certainly help."

"Sounds like we've got a lot bigger punch than that Lomax is expecting, "said Norm.

"Yeah, and maybe one other surprise, too. We salvaged one other thing." Jake stopped and looked straight at Norm. "You learned to ride a horse amazingly fast. Think you could do as well with an AMP suit?"

* * *

The General Alarm brought Harriet Kim running to the control room. Other officers and technicians were scrambling to their posts as she arrived. Lomax was already there and Selfridge was hovering off to one side. "Is this it?" she asked Lomax while simultaneously scanning the tactical displays. It had been two weeks since Sulley had rejected Lomax's proposal. They had been expecting an attack ever since.

"Looks like it. No way to tell for sure until they commit, but there are certainly a shitload of banshees gathering out there. You got an estimate on numbers yet, sergeant?"

A harried sensor technician jabbed a few buttons and then looked up. "We're estimated in excess of seven thousand, sir. Hard to get an exact count because they are staying low and keep dipping down into the treetops. Range averages out to about thirty-five klicks. Closing very slowly."

"Yeah, Sulley's being clever," growled Lomax. "He's trying to goad us into firing at long range. I'm sure he's got observers in close with a com-link. As soon as we cut loose they'll dive into the trees and ninety percent of our missiles will detonate in the foliage. Well, we're not going to fall for that! We'll hold our fire until they get close. Close enough to see the gold of their eyes, eh, Captain?"

"Yes, sir. Is there any indication of a ground assault forming? I see a number of contacts on the ground at under three clicks."

"Nothing big," replied Lomax. "The contacts are all scattered without any concentration big enough to be worth a missile. They've learned not to clump up. I'm guessing they're mostly scouts and maybe a few small parties hoping to rush the perimeter while we're busy with the banshees. If we had the ammo to spare I'd send out a few gunships to drive them off, but we need to hold them back until we can commit them decisively."

Kim nodded and then moved around the control room checking on situation reports. Her position was a bit vague in the chain of command. Lomax seemed to want her involved in everything without actually delegating any real authority. She didn't know anything about Lomax's background, but she suspected it was with some sort of special forces or covert ops group in one of Earth's real militaries. His experience commanding standard combat troops in a stand-up fire fight seemed limited and he often sought her advice. She'd given it to him as best she could. She went back over to him.

"All posts are manned, sir. Automated weapons are at standby, All gunships and AMPs are hot and the armed civilians are at their emergency stations. We're ready, sir."

"Very good," said Lomax. "Okay, Sulley, your move."

* * *

"They're not going for it, Jake," said Norm into his com-link. "They have to have you on their screens, but the choppers are staying put and there have been no missile launches." Norm studied the Hells Gate base through binoculars. He was about three klicks away, peering between the foliage.

"Okay," came back Jake's reply. "It was worth a try. I guess we have to go in and do this the hard way."

"It will be okay, Jake," said Norm trying to sound confident.

"Yeah, from where I'm sitting it looks like it will be a piece of cake," said Jake with a sour laugh. "You ought to see this, Norm. The whole damn sky is filled with banshees. Even more than during the first battle. And every one has a Na'vi on its back. I can almost sympathize with Quaritch: this sort of thing could get damned addictive real easy. Having this sort of power at your command… hell, no wonder humans fight so many wars." There was a pause and then Jake spoke again. "I doubt I'm going to feel this way in another hour. What's your status?"

"We're about all in position. We spent the last two nights inching the autocannons into concealed locations where they can fire at the guns along the perimeter wall. The AMP suit's hidden, too. I think we're ready."

"All right, do not, I repeat: do NOT break cover until they open up on us. Their eyes are going to be glued to their scopes and their trigger fingers itchy. If they see any significant movement close to the fence before they're fully occupied with us, they'll blow you away before you can fire a shot."

"I hear you," said Norm. "We'll just keep our heads down until the show starts." Norm hesitated. "Jake… any sign Eywa's going to help out?"

"Well, I 'talked' to her last night. She knows what's going down. I can't say I've noticed anything unusual happening with the animals, but I've been kind of busy."

"Yeah, I know what you mean. We encountered quite a few hammerheads getting here, but I don't know enough to say if that's unusual. I guess we're on our own this time. But it will be okay. Uh, Jake… be careful."

"Damn right," laughed his friend. "You, too. Okay, here we go." Norm heard Jake switch to the general circuit so he could speak to all the group leaders who had com-links: "Bothers! Sisters! This is the Toruk Makto! The time is at hand! Attack!"

Norm half-expected to hear a cheer erupt all around him, but there was nothing except the normal forest noises. The ground parties were all experienced hunters and there was no way they would break silence while stalking their quarry. He was quite sure that thousands of Na'vi were cheering, but they were the ones riding the banshees. They would be the first to fight—and the first to die.

He looked around. There were a dozen Na'vi acting as his bodyguard. For Norm was in his human form. No adult Na'vi could fit into an AMP suit so Norm's avatar was back at the shack and he was here as himself to drive the AMP suit. The bodyguard was to ensure that no one killed him by mistake.

It had taken over a week to drag the massive suit through the jungle, using horses. They didn't dare have it move under its own power for that would have revealed it immediately to the enemy's sensors. No, it was just an inert lump of metals and plastics and would stay that way until the right moment. Norm hoped he could make good use of it. He'd trained on it and it was easier to use than he's expected. He'd have no chance against a real expert, but he could walk without falling down (mostly) and he could aim and fire the autocannon. He hoped he could do some real damage before they killed him.

And Norm was fully expecting to be killed. The enemy would target everything they could bring to bear as soon as they were aware of him. He could scarcely believe he was doing this. He was no warrior! But how could he stay behind? Jake was every bit as much a dead man as himself. The Toruk would stand out like a beacon, even among the swarms of banshees. The enemy would be looking for him and there was no way Jake was going to last long. And Jake knew it. He wasn't even carrying any of the modern weapons. He knew he'd never get close enough to use them. He'd use himself as a decoy to let others get close. His only hope was that the Toruk would be killed and that he might survive the fall. And perhaps Norm would survive, too: If the AMP suit was crippled, he could abandon it and run. Nice dream.

He'd said goodbye to Lanuma back in camp. She promised to take good care of his sleeping avatar, but both of them realized it would probably never wake up again. She didn't seem too repulsed to see him in human form, which pleased him for some reason he couldn't define. He thought she was weeping as he left. He wished she was here with him now. Neytiri was right there at Jake's side and he envied him.

He checked the time. About fifteen minutes left…

* * *

Max Patel stared out the window at the beehive of activity. Hells Gate was at full alert, but was this the real thing, or just another drill? He needed to be sure. He had been under virtual house arrest since Kim had caught him. He could putter around the lab and go from there to his quarters, but that was about it. His computer access was severely limited and no one outside his immediate circle of friends would even talk to him. On the other hand, his isolation was also for his own good. There were about a thousand mercs and miners who would gladly kill him if they got the chance. In their eyes he was a traitor and he supposed he couldn't really blame them. From his perspective this was all a simple case of right-vs-wrong, but few people could ever bring themselves to admit that they were on the wrong side.

_Am I?_

When he'd helped Grace and Jake and Norm escape and when he's informed them of Quaritch's activities he'd never imagined it would lead to so much killing. But what else could he have done? Max was a scientist and he knew that Pandora was a priceless treasure. The Unobtainium was trivial by comparison. To allow the RDA to devastate the planet was simply wrong. A hundred years from now technology would have moved on and the unobtainium would become nothing more than a curiosity as better things were discovered. But Pandora would still be ruined. No, it had to be stopped. Max had already struck one blow in that cause.

He was ready to strike another.

He jumped when Cynthia burst into the lab. Everyone else was at an emergency station. "Max!" she exclaimed. "The Na'vi are coming!"

"They're attacking? You're sure?"

"That's the word! They're massing out over the forest. They ought to be here in ten or fifteen minutes."

Max looked back out the window. There was no sign of any fighting yet, but he could see several gunships circling and a half-dozen more parked on the runway with their rotors turning. Mercs and the armed workers were in sandbagged positions. AMP suits trundled along here and there. A large cluster of earth movers and bulldozers from the mine were parked at the far end of the runway. He could see two of the five tall weapons towers that were the primary fixed defenses of Hells Gate. But his eyes were drawn to a small, inconspicuous concrete structure near one corner of the base.

The Ordnance Bunker.

During that briefing Captain Kim had clearly revealed the humans' single greatest weakness: lack of ammunition. Every man and machine was carrying a full load right now, there was nothing Max could do about that. But all the rest, everything that remained would be in that bunker.

Max could do something about that—or so he hoped.

"All right," he said to Cynthia. "If we're going to do it, now's the time. You still want to go through with this? There's no way we'll be able to cover up your involvement."

"I'm sure, Max. It has to be done and if it works, we'll save God knows how many lives."

He took a deep breath. "Okay, let's do it."

* * *

"The enemy is continuing to close," said the sensor tech. "Range is now twelve kilometers." Captain Kim watched the sensor displays and nervously tapped her fingers against her side. Not long now.

"Captain," said Lomax. "At what range can we fire the seeker missiles where the flight time to target will be ten seconds or less?"

Kim did some quick mental arithmetic. "About six kilometers, sir."

"Very well, we'll open fire at five. The enemy will have no time to duck into the trees."

"Yes, sir." Kim continued to watch. In another minute or two absolute hell was going to break loose. The missiles would start going out and Na'vi would start dying. The enemy had been advancing slowly, no doubt conserving the strength of their mounts. But once the firing started they would increase speed and close the distance as rapidly as they could. Once they were within a kilometer the mini-guns along the perimeter fence would open up and so would the AMP suits. The gun ships would hold back at first to see where the greatest threats were and then salvo off their missiles to try and deal with them. With any luck they could kill 3,000 of the attackers before the first of them reached the perimeter. What would happen then was anybody's guess. If Lomax was right, the Na'vi would break, morale shattered by their terrible losses, before they even reached the fence. But if he was wrong. If the remaining 4,000 Na'vi kept coming and got in among the defenders…

"Ma'am? Captain Kim?" She turned with a jerk. One of the technicians was calling her.

"Yes, what is it?"

"Uh, I'm not sure, ma'am. One of the big remote control 'dozers is moving. I show no orders to that effect. Did you authorize that?"

"I certainly did not. Where?"

"Right there," He pointed to his monitor that was hooked to one of the many remote cameras around the base. Sure enough, one of the huge yellow machines was slowly moving across the concrete. _What the hell…?_

"Is anyone controlling that 'dozer?" shouted Kim very loudly. Every head turned in her direction. There was a moment of confusion and then everyone emphatically said no.

"What's going on, Captain?" demanded Lomax. "We've got more important things to worry about right now, in case you haven't noticed." Kim ignored him and had the tech zoom in on the 'dozer until they could pick out its ID number.

"You, Schmidt, take control of Unit 241D. Shut it down," commanded Kim.

"Yes, ma'am!" The tech's fingers danced over his board but then he stopped, a surprised expression on his face. "It's under remote control, ma'am, but it's locked me out. The overrides aren't working. I can't stop it from here!"

"Shit!" snarled Kim. She pulled out her binoculars and stepped to the window. The dozer was across the runway and heading for the far corner of the base. In fact it was heading right for the…

"The ordnance dump!"

"What?" exclaimed Lomax, twisting around.

"The dozer is heading right for the ammo dump! Flight ops! Have the gunships take out that dozer! Hurry!"

After a moment of stunned silence everyone was shouting at once. Kim turned her binoculars back on the 'dozer. The damn thing could only move at about 5 kilometers an hour, but it was only a few hundred meters from the dump! There was a babble of voices behind her.

"Yes! I said shoot it!" screamed the flight controller. "Shoot!"

The two closest gunships spun around and began firing missiles. Explosions started blossoming on the sides of the 'dozer and a moment later the blasts could be heard in the control room. But the gunships were carrying fragmentation missiles, perfect for shredding banshees, but the' dozer was built like a tank. It kept moving. It was less than a hundred meters from the dump. Its huge dozer blade came down. More explosions and for an instant the machine was obscured by smoke, but when it cleared, it was still moving. "Get it! Get it!" cried Kim.

Fifty meters, thirty, ten…

The blade struck the side of the bunker and the 'dozer lurched, faltered, and then lurched forward again. For an instant Kim could see the side of the bunker cave in and then the image in her binoculars vanished in a blast of flame. She jerked the binoculars away from her eyes and looked out the window of the control room. At the far end of the base a huge column of flame and smoke rose skyward. A powerful concussion slammed against the windows but they were strong enough not to break. The immense dozer was lifted up and flipped on its back. But the dozer blade went spinning lazily through the air to crash down squarely on Defense Tower 4. A second, and by comparison puny, explosion blew the tower apart. As Kim watched mesmerized, chunks of concrete from the bunker came raining down. One piece caught a gunship's rotors and the machine went out of control and crashed, skidding to a halt on the concrete and miraculously not exploding, too. Out on the ground men were running in all direction.

"My God…" whispered Kim.

* * *

Even four kilometers away, Norm was nearly knocked off his feet by the explosion. Stunned, he looked around in confusion. What was that? Then his Na'vi bodyguard were crying out and pointing. Norm looked in that direction and was astonished to see an enormous cloud of black smoke rising over the base.

"Norm? Norm? What the hell was that?" Jake's voice came through the com-link.

"Uh… not sure, Jake, stand by." He raised his binoculars and studied the base. The whole Northeast corner was shrouded in smoke. "Jake? Jake, there's been a huge explosion at the base!"

"Yeah, I know," answered Jake. "I could feel it from here. What was it?"

"I can't really see anything, there's so much smoke. But it's in the northeast corner and the only thing in that area is…."

"The Ordnance Bunker," finished Jake. "Looks like Eywa—or somebody—is still looking out for us."

"Yeah. But Jake, what should we do? Do we continue the attack? They're probably all disorganized by this. It might be our best chance."

"What about the rest of the base?"

"It seems pretty much intact," reported Norm. I can see at least three of the defense towers and the gunships are buzzing around like angry wasps."

There was a long pause and then Norm heard Jake on the general circuit. "Brothers! Sisters! This is the Toruk Makto! Land in the trees and wait! Something has happened in the enemy fortress and we must find out what it is before we strike. Land and wait!"

Norm found that he was holding his breath. Would the Na'vi obey? Some of them were very eager to fight. Would they hold back? "Well?" he gasped after a bit. "Are they doing it? Jake! Are they holding back?"

"Yes. Thank Eywa, they are," said Jake. "Well, this is sure interesting! Do you think Lomax might be a little more willing to negotiate about now?"

Norm smiled. "He just might be. Certainly worth a shot."

* * *

"I want a status report—now!" snarled Lomax. Harriet Kim did her best to hold her temper.

"Sir, Defense Tower 4 is gone. Three of the gunships have taken crippling damage and are out of action. There are two large gaps torn in the perimeter fence and five of the mini-gun turrets are knocked out. We've got about forty men with various injuries, but—and I'm still not sure I believe it—no one reported killed."

"Everyone near the bunker just ran when they saw the 'dozer coming," said Lieutenant Asoka.

"Damn cowards!" snapped Lomax. "Any one of them could have climbed aboard and shut it down manually!"

_Yeah, right. I suppose you would have been willing to do that!_ "And, of course, our entire reserve stock of ammunition has been destroyed," said Kim aloud.

"We still have enough on hand to fight!" said Lomax. "Sensors! What is the status of the enemy?"

"There are a few hundred banshees circling around at about seven kilometers, sir. The rest have gone into the trees."

"They obviously saw the explosion and waiting to find out what it means," said Kim.

"Sir!' said one of the communications techs, "I've got an incoming message, it's from Sulley!"

Lomax's face was quite red by this time, but he squared his shoulders and said: "All right, put him through."

"It's a voice message only sir, switching to speaker."

"Mr. Lomax? This is Jake Sulley, come in please."

"This is Lomax. What do you want?"

"It seems like you've had a bit of an accident there. Someone sneeze in the ammo dump?" Sulley's voice was lighthearted, almost jovial.

"That's none of your damn business!"

"Oh I think it is! Without your ammo reserve you're screwed, Lomax, and we both know it. I'm still willing to let you evacuate. Same terms as before."

"Go to hell!"

"You sure about that? Maybe I ought to give you a few minutes to think about it. I'll call you back shortly. Sulley out."

"Sir," said Kim, "We really do need to consider this. We've lost about twenty percent of our effective firepower and with no resupply of ammunition… in my opinion we are risking annihilation if we continue to resist."

"You view is noted, Captain. Sensors! Were you able to get a fix on Sulley's location from that last transmission?"

"Yes sir," replied the tech. "I've put it up on the display. Range about eight klicks."

"Good! Missile Control, target a one hundred missile salvo around those coordinates. We'll see how Mr. Sulley likes this!"

Kim stared aghast. Was he really serious? "Sir! We're in the midst of a parlay! If you kill Sulley now there'll be no controlling the Na'vi. They'll go berserk! There'll be no stopping them!"

"No, Captain, without their leader, they will give up. Missile Control, fire when ready."

"Belay that order!" cried Kim. "Missile Control, stand down!"

Lomax turned to face her. His face, instead of being filled with rage was strangely calm. And in that moment she knew. "Captain Kim, you are relieved of duty. You will confine yourself to quarters. Missile Control, carry out my last order." The man at the missile control station, Sergeant Jenkins, looked around helplessly, unsure what to do.

"As you were, Mr. Jenkins," said Kim. "Mr. Lomax, I'm relieving you of command."

"Oh really," sneered Lomax. "You want to just give up, do you? Abandon this base to a bunch of savages? Coward! I tell you the enemy will break! We can hold this base!"

"Is that why you've had the auxiliary shuttle prepped for launch, sir?" asked Kim. "It can hold what? Ten people? Yourself, Mr. Selfridge and who else? If you're so confident of victory, why do you have your escape route all ready? It's because you don't care if we hold out or not, do you? A victory would be fine, but a massacre would suit the Corporation almost as well! The gloves would be off then! You could come back and use whatever force you wanted to wipe out the Na'vi and rape this world. All the rest of us would be dead, but that wouldn't bother you a bit, would it?" Lomax's face went pale and there was a murmur around the control room.

"Bitch!" snarled Lomax and there was a gun in his hand. Kim had a pistol on her belt, but she could never reach it in time.

But suddenly Lieutenant Asoka was grappling with Lomax and his gun went flying. Lomax struck down Asoka with a savage blow, but then the Company Man was swarmed under by an avalanche of other people. He thrashed around, cursing, but was quickly restrained. Kim let out the breath she was holding.

"Take him to detention," she gasped. "Communication, open a channel to Sulley."

A minute later the rebel leader was on the line again. "Mr. Sulley? This is Captain Kim."

"Where's Lomax?"

"He's indisposed at the moment. I'm in command again."

"Welcome back, Captain. Have you thought about my offer?"

"Yes," said Kim with a long sigh. "We agree to go."

* * *

Norm Spellman watched the long line of humans sullenly trudging toward the shuttle. They were flanked by armed Na'vi who towered above them on horseback. Banshees wheeled overhead. He was here in human form because he had just returned to Pandora from the orbital station aboard that very shuttle. As part of the agreement, Jake and the Na'vi had been allowed to transmit a long message to Earth. It was a full account of everything that had happened, including pictures of the destruction of Hometree. It was broadcast in the clear and every radio telescope on Earth would be able to pick it up. The Corporation would have no hope of suppressing it. Norm's job was to make sure the transmission actually took place. Max Patel had gone with him. It turned out Max was _very_ good with computers and he was able to confirm that there had been no funny business. The pair walked over to Jake.

"Everything okay?' he asked.

"Yup, no problems," replied Norm. "The message is on its way and nothing can stop it. Don't know if it will do any good, but it was worth a try."

"The Corporation will try to discredit it," said Max. "And I'm sure they will largely succeed—they've got all the money in the world, after all. But the truth will get to enough people to make a difference."

"I sure hope so," said Jake. "But what about you, Max? You sure you want to stay?"

"If I went back to Earth I'd be thrown in jail. Anyway, this is home now, Jake." He looked over to where Cynthia Sundstrom was watching him and smiled.

"But for how long? How long can you keep the base life support running? You're taking a hell of a chance."

"Yeah, but there's enough equipment and supplies for two thousand people here. That ought to be enough to keep a few dozen of us alive for quite a while. And if your offer of limited trade with Earth is accepted we ought to be able to get whatever we want. Hell, there's twenty _tons_ of Unobtainium in storage here. That ought to buy quite a few redi-meals." Max looked thoughtful. "I wonder if we could buy avatars for those us who don't have them…?"

"By the way, Max," said Jake, "I never had the chance to thank you for taking out the ammo dump. That _was_ you, wasn't it?"

"I'm in enough trouble with the RDA as it is Jake," said Max with a smile. "Let's just say that computer security for mining equipment is _much_ less tight than for military computers. And with a friend's username and password, well… glad to be of service."

Their conversation was interrupted when they spotted Administrator Parker Selfridge walking past. He looked at Jake and then Norm and Max but didn't say a word. Jake just jerked his head toward the shuttle.

The end of the column approached and Norm saw that Captain Kim was the very last one. She paused when she came abreast of Jake. "Mr. Sully, this is the last of us. When the shuttle leaves, the only humans remaining on Pandora are the ones you've allowed to stay. This fulfills our agreement." Kim's hand came up in salute. "Good luck to you, sir."

"Don't salute me, Captain," laughed Jake. "I'm just a corporal."

Kim looked around at the hundreds of Na'vi in the base and the swarms of banshees circling over the forest. "Hell of a command for a corporal. I hope you know what to do with it. But in any case, good luck to you. I am praying that we do not meet again." She faced to the right and marched away to the shuttle.

"Amen to that," whispered Jake.

* * *

Ten days later they had a great celebratory feast. All the clans who had come to help would be leaving soon and the Omaticaya wanted to formally thank them all for their aid. The feast was held at the great tree that would become the Omaticaya's new home. It was smaller than their old home and needed much work but all agreed that it would serve. Many of the people from the other clans were leaving tools and other gifts to help the Omaticaya in their time of need.

Jake spent much of his time conferring with the other clan leaders. They agreed that the word must be spread to every corner of Pandora, even across the great seas. All must be warned of what had happened. Every eye must watch for a return of the Skypeople. Pandora was a big planet and the Na'vi were thinly scattered. If they were not vigilant the Skypeople might return in secret to some remote area and not be discovered until it was too late.

Norm left the politics to Jake and spent much of the evening dancing with Lanuma. He had long since decided that shew as really very pretty HHH

He had long-since decided that she was really very pretty. And a few quiet questions to Neytiri had confirmed that while Na'vi mated for life, if one of the pair was killed, the other was free to find another mate. He resolved to have a long talk with Lanuma.

Later in the evening Jake finally broke free of the politics and joined Norm and Lanuma and Max and Cynthia near one of the fires. Max had been hailed as a great hero for destroying the ammo dump and it had gone a long way to convince the Na'vi that not all the Skypeople were evil. Jake had his arm around Neytiri, but he seemed depressed. "What is wrong, my Jake? The war is over and all is well."

Jake leaned against Neytiri and sighed. "Oh, just some selfish thoughts, Love."

"What?" prompted Norm.

"I… I was thinking about the link capsules. Max, you told me about how finicky they are. How long are we gonna be able to keep them working?" He looked at Neytiri. "I love this world and I love these people and I love this woman. I'd hate to lose it all now that we've won."

Norm was silent. He's been having the same worries. The thought of being cooped up in a crumbling outpost for the rest of his life was not very appealing. For Jake being trapped in a wheelchair in a crumbling base would be even worse. But then Max spoke up:

"Well, you know, Jake, my specialty has been the neural link for the avatars. I've been thinking a lot about what you told me about Grace and the Well of Souls."

"Yeah?" said Norm and Jake in unison.

"I've had this idea…" said Max.

**The End**

Author's Note: I realize that a few things in this story don't agree with information in the Survival Guide, but that was a deliberate decision on my part.


	2. Chapter 2

Aftermath

Chapter 2: The Decision

by Scott Washburn

_Sometimes even the weight of an Atokirina can tilt the balance – Na'vi Proverb_

2159 AD

Jeremiah Suvarov stared at the personnel file on his computer monitor and sighed. The photo showed a rock-jawed, crew-cut man wearing the uniform of a colonel in the RDA security forces. Suvarov could hardly imagine such a man wearing anything but a uniform. Every part of that face, that expression, belonged to a soldier. Well, technically he had been a marine: Major Miles Quaritch, formally of the United States Marines, 2nd battalion, 6th Regiment.

And now he was dead. In fact, he had been dead for over four years although the news had only reached Earth a few days ago.

Suvarov tried to remember the few times he had met Quaritch, but the memories were distant—nearly as distant as the planet Pandora where Quaritch had met his end. It was almost twenty years ago now. Suvarov, himself, had only joined the RDA a few years before then and was still over ten years away from reaching his current post as Head of Corporate Security. The man who had been in charge then, the man who had chosen Quaritch to be the chief of security on Pandora, was long gone now, retired for over a decade. He could thank his lucky stars for that—just as Suvarov could thank his own that he'd had nothing to do with the decision.

Still, it was inevitable that the decision was going to be questioned in light of the recent disaster. Suvarov paged through Quaritch's records, trying to figure out a way to spin this. The man's early military record was exemplary—at least on the surface. Graduated well up in his class at the US Naval Academy, rose quickly in the ranks due to both ability and some good connections. Decorated for gallantry on four occasions during service in Nigeria along with the host of other non-combat decorations that officers seem to accumulate—Suvarov had a whole drawer full of them himself from his years with the Russian Army. But Quaritch had been pulled out of Nigeria despite his request for another tour. The reasons were a bit vague, but he had been targeted in an investigation into several alleged massacres of civilians. Nothing had ever come of it but it had the smell of a cover-up. Suvarov had been on the edges of enough of those to recognize the signs. Quaritch's reputation was that of a man who led from the front and demanded as much of himself as he did of his men. He was the sort of officer any commander would like to have when there was fighting to do.

Unfortunately, such men were often a problem when there was no fighting to do.

Quaritch's later career was not nearly as exemplary as his early one. Peacetime routine seemed to bore him and he took out his frustrations on his troops—and apparently on his wife and children, too. The file contained numerous complaints, but no official reprimands—Quaritch's connections undoubtedly. He'd been ordered to get psychiatric counseling and he'd obeyed the letter of the command, but the results had been disappointing. Quaritch's career ground to a halt and in all probability he would have been forcibly retired as a major.

So he had resigned and joined the RDA.

At that particular time the Americans had more influence in how the RDA was run than they currently did and Quaritch had enough pull to get a good posting. That sort of thing was just a fact of life in the RDA: personal connections carried as much weight as qualifications or ability. The Russians had a bigger say now and that was how Suvarov had gained his own position. No doubt the wheel would turn again and someone else would eventually sit in Suvarov's chair. He had already made plans for that day.

But Quaritch had joined the RDA and unlike most, he was willing to spend six years in cryo and travel four and a quarter light years to Alpha Centauri A and the planet Pandora. Not many people were willing to do that, despite the prestige and huge salary. The head of Pandoran security at that time wanted to come home and somehow Quaritch was selected as his replacement. At face value he seemed like a good choice: years of experience in low-intensity counter-insurgency warfare in a jungle environment. He knew how to lead men and he could get results. So Qauritch went to Pandora.

At first things went well. Despite suffering a serious wound soon after arrival, Quaritch learned the ropes as second in command for a year and then took over when the previous commander rotated home. He served a full tour and then requested a second, which was approved. Unfortunately, Suvarov _had_ been involved in that decision and he was going to be asked to justify it. Well, what was there to justify? Quaritch had done a good job by all accounts. He kept the base and the mine protected. Casualties, both human and native, had been acceptably low and he got along with the mine managers. There had been some complaints from the scientists, but nothing out of the ordinary—they had complained about the prior security chief, too. And he was loyal, loyalty was something that meant a great deal to Suvarov.

But after he had been given a second tour things began to change. Skirmishing with the natives had increased—along with casualties—and Quaritch's requests for reinforcements and new and better equipment became a monthly ritual. Complaints from the scientists had gone up in almost direct proportion with the skirmishes. Still, things seemed under control. But then the decision to open up a new mine site had been made. Quaritch's demands for more troops and weapons could not be refused so easily and a steady build-up had begun. The actual cost of the hardware was trivial, of course, it was shipping it to Pandora that was the problem. The expansion of the mines called for huge amounts of equipment and space on the star ships was limited. Quartich got some of what he wanted, but not all. His demands continued to grow and some of the messages he sent were less than polite.

Suvarov called up those messages on his monitor and skimmed through them. A frown grew on his face and he shook his head. _Damn!_ He remembered reading some of these, but separated by weeks or months, there had not seemed to be anything worthy of notice. But reading them together like this… a frightening pattern became all too obvious. The messages seemed to alternate between exuberant confidence in his command and pessimistic forecasts of possible disaster if his requests for reinforcements were not met. Towards the end the messages were almost manic in character. Why the hell hadn't anyone caught this? If not his people here, then the psychologists on Pandora. They had a team of people there who were supposed to look out for this very sort of thing.

The very last message from Quaritch, sent mere hours before his death, sounded like some speech that Stalin, himself, might have given at the height of the Great Patriotic War, exhorting his troops to drive the fascists out of Mother Russia. _That_ one had certainly raised red flags and it had found its way to his desk almost immediately. But, of course, it was far too late to do anything. Quaritch was long dead—years dead—before the message even arrived. If Quaritch had been assigned anywhere on Earth, anywhere in the solar system, he would have been quietly relieved long before the crisis point was reached. But on Pandora, fifty-one months away be even the fastest communications, the crisis point had occurred and passed before anyone on Earth was even aware of it.

Ironically, Quaritch's request for a third tour on Pandora had been disapproved, but the message to that effect did not reach Pandora until six months after it became irrelevant. Quaritch's replacement would have arrived eighteen months after that. Indeed, he would have been there for over two years by now—what had he found? The report of the disastrous battle and Quaritch's death had arrived over a week ago. The new emergency commander, a Captain Harriet Kim who Suvarov had no recollection of whatever, was taking measures to defend the Hell's Gate base, but did not sound confident of success. The entire leadership of the RDA had been waiting anxiously for news ever since.

Suvarov got up from his desk and walked over to the window. His office was three-quarters of the way up the three-kilometer tall tower that was RDA headquarters on Qatar Island in the Persian Gulf. He stared out, but could not see much. A storm was working its way down the Gulf and rain splashed the windows and clouds swirled past in a gale-force wind. He could feel the tower swaying gently. His rank entitled him to an office nearly at the top of the tower, but he had elected to retain the office that came with his prior position. It was part of a carefully cultivated reputation for austerity and incorruptibility that he'd fostered. It was a façade, of course, but a useful one. By refusing the petty graft that was the prevue of any bureaucrat he was better able to conceal the larger indiscretions. Anyway, the tower swayed even more near the top.

He sighed and returned to his desk. What a mess. He closed the files on Quaritch and tried to put him out of his mind. The crisis on Pandora was the top priority, of course, but until more information arrived there wasn't a thing he could do. There were a multitude of other problems, far closer to home, that he needed to deal with. The RDA was an enormous entity with operations on every continent and nearly in every nation as well as on the moon and several of the Jovian satellites. Its purpose was to see that Earth's resources were properly collected and distributed. If not equitably, at least rationally. While most people accepted the necessity, there were some who objected—sometimes violently. As a result, the RDA had the fifth largest military on the planet. At least in terms of personnel, it lacked the heavy and strategic weapons of the great powers' militaries—although it could certainly borrow those items if it ever proved necessary. Most of those RDA personnel were little more than glorified watchmen and security guards, but some were far more capable. Those guarding the power plants and the anti-matter production facilities were as well-trained and equipped as any force in the world. The force on Pandora was supposed to have been like that, too…

And Jeremiah Suvarov was in charge of all of it. Hardly a day went by when some disgruntled person or group did not try to attack an RDA facility. He had to try to forestall those attacks. It was a big job and he wasn't always successful. He had not had any big failures during his tenure, but those little black marks tended to pile up and when added to the enormous black mark that he was going to collect over the Pandora fiasco… well… retirement was looking better and better. He'd already bought a home on a nice tropical island in the Danish Archipelago. His mind began to wander…

The beeping of the intercom pulled him back from dreams of his retirement home. He pressed a button. "Yes?"

"We've received a new message from Pandora, sir," said his assistant, Ivan Kosegan. "I'm transferring it to you now, sir. It's in the priority code."

"Thank you," said Suvarov. The message arrived almost immediately and after supplying the proper authorizations, he was able to decode it. His eyebrows rose when he saw who it was from. Not Captain Kim, not Selfridge, no, it was from Lomax. Not a good sign. It was very short and simply stated that Operation Alamo was now in effect. Suvarov called up the particulars on Alamo and snorted. As the name indicated, the operation had been devised by the same American predecessor who had picked Quaritch for the job on Pandora. He supposed if it had been him he might have called it Operation Stalingrad. But whatever you called it, it was definitely not good news.

With a groan he pushed himself out of his chair and headed for the private lift that would take him to the Chairman's office. Some bits of news needed to be delivered in person.

***

"Ivan! Over here!"

Ivan Kosegan turned and scanned the crowd and then smiled broadly when he spotted Rhada. The young woman slipped around the intervening people with the grace of a ballerina and a moment later was in his arms. They kissed and held each other for a few lovely moments and then pulled away enough to talk without letting go. Rhada Patel was stunningly beautiful. Her flawless café au lait complexion and long, jet-black hair along with the face and figure of some Hindu goddess were a delight to behold. Or just plain hold, Ivan pulled her a little closer and kissed her again. "How are you doing?' he asked when they came up for air.

"Pretty good," she said, turning so they could walk but still holding on closely. "Busy week though, I'm just glad it's Friday!"

"What're you guys working on these days?" he asked while steering them in the direction of the restaurant where they'd be having dinner. Rhada was a geologist in the RDA science department. A darn good one, too.

"Oh, nothing new, really, just analyzing the mountains of data we get from Pandora. But on Tuesday we got a new directive from upstairs asking us about unobtainium deposits elsewhere in the Alpha Centauri A system. Dr. Carlstein made it top priority. We've been scurrying around pulling out all the old surveys from the first expeditions. Do you know some of those are over forty years old?"

Ivan's smile froze on his face. More fallout from the disaster on Pandora, even though Rhada couldn't possible know about it yet. At least someone was thinking ahead. "Really?" he said. "Is there much? Unobtainium, I mean."

"Of course. From everything we've learned at Alpha C, the standard models of solar system formation seem to be holding up. A star and its family of planets condense from an enormous cloud of dust. If the unobtainium is on Pandora, then it must have been in the cloud that all the other planets condensed from, too. You would naturally expect to find it on the other planets and moons. Of course that doesn't answer the question of why unobtainum was in Alpha C's dust cloud to begin with when there's none to be found in our own solar system which is so close by, relatively speaking."

"Uh huh," said Ivan. He didn't have much interest in geology, but it was a delight just hearing Rhada talk. He'd been in love a few times in his life, but never like this. He was coming to believe that she really was the one.

"So it's there, but none of it is as easy to get to as on Pandora," continued Rhada.

"Well, Pandora is the only planet in the system with a remotely Earth-like environment," said Ivan.

"It's not just that," replied Rhada. "For reasons we don't completely understand, you find unobtainium much closer to the surface on Pandora—right on the surface in a lot of places. The current theory is that volcanic and seismic activity on Pandora has brought it up from lower down. But we can't explain why it hasn't happened the same way on some of the other moons and planets. You can find it in the asteroid belts and Polyphemus' ring system, too, but scattered very thinly. Collecting it would be a lot of work."

They reached the restaurant and were quickly seated. It was a very high-end establishment with excellent service. As the personal assistant to the Head of Corporate Security Ivan was _very_ well paid and had a great deal of pull. The waiters seemed to know it, too. Their table was near the huge window that looked out on the Gulf. Yesterday's storm had finally passed and they were getting a rare bit of clear weather. The sun was dipping in the west and painting a few puffy clouds a brilliant pink. "Hard to believe that this whole area was desert once," said Ivan, sipping a cocktail.

"Hard to believe that Qatar was a peninsula instead of an island once," laughed Rhada. "I love old maps and comparing them to modern ones. Incredible how much has changed." Ivan raised an eyebrow. Rhada was a kind and considerate person, but sometimes the scientist in her showed through. Those 'changes' she spoke of so lightly had resulted in disaster, devastation, war and suffering on a scale that could hardly be comprehended. The radical climate changes of the last century had seen the ocean levels rise by thirty meters. Huge areas of coastline were now under water. Over a billion people had been displaced. Millions more had died, some in the floods and more in the conflicts that followed. With the rising temperatures there was a 2,000 kilometer wide swath around the equator that was virtually uninhabitable. What had been rain forest was now desert. And what had been desert was, well, a soggy mudhole for the most part. Civilization had very nearly broken down.

And into that chaos had stepped the RDA, the Resource Development Authority.

Already a huge multi-national conglomerate, the RDA controlled a world-wide transport network that proved to be indispensable in meeting the challenges of the crisis. People and resources had to be moved on an unprecedented scale. Entire populations had to be relocated, housed and fed. No government or group of governments was up to the task. At first the RDA's involvement was supposed to be a temporary measure, but bit by bit the situation came to be seen as the new normality. The RDA used its power and wealth to not just transport resources, but to eventually own most of the sources of those resources. The worlds' governments insisted on having oversight, and in theory they still did, but since there was no longer any alternative to the RDA—with billions of lives hanging in the balance—the Corporation did nearly whatever it pleased.

Of course, some of what it pleased had been good things. Take space exploration, for example. National governments had dabbled in it for a few decades, but it was too expensive and the common people just didn't give a damn. But the top men in the RDA did give a damn and they had the money to make it happen. Once they put their resources behind it, more progress had been made in a decade than had been made in the previous century. That had led Man outward, first to the solar system and then, eventually, to Pandora.

And the current crisis.

Someone had once called history 'just one damn thing after another'. But Ivan sometimes wondered if that wasn't Mankind's fate. From his position it seemed like there was an endless cycle of crises and disasters. They would barely fend off one catastrophe before another would arise. It was like a juggling act and there were just too many plates up in the air…

"Hey! What are you thinking about so seriously?" said Rhada suddenly and she nudged his leg under the table. "You're supposed to be paying attention to me, you know!" She flashed him a dazzling smile.

He smiled back. "Sorry, just thinking about work."

"Oh? What's going on? And yes, I know: _You can't tell me!" _ She laughed and he joined in. It was a running joke between them. But his laughter was definitely forced. The news wasn't going to remain secret much longer he feared, but for the moment he had to keep his mouth shut. _How much longer will we be able to keep the lid on this?_ There was an awful lot of communications that came in from Pandora. Not just official reports but personal messages. There were over 2,000 people there and they all had friends and family back on Earth… A new thought struck him.

"Rhada, have you heard anything from your brother lately?"

"Max? No, he's terrible about writing letters or sending video-messages. Always claims he's so busy. Which is true, I suppose. But it's still not fair. He gets to play around on the most fascinating world in the universe, the least he could do is tell me about it! I haven't heard from him in nearly a month. Why?"

"Oh, no reason. Just curious." He tried to be nonchalant, but he couldn't shake the nagging worry about what might have happened to Max Patel. He'd never met the man, but he was important to Rhada and that made him important to Ivan. _Is that love?_ "You were pretty close with him before he left, weren't you?"

"Yes, well, sort of. He was eleven years older than me—only five now with his time in cryo, and by the time he gets back he'll be the same biological age as me, isn't that odd? So I idolized him because he got to do all this cool stuff. And I was his favorite of the younger siblings because I was so incredibly cute."

"Still are."

"This is true," she said with a grin. They both laughed. Sometimes they would just laugh for minutes at a time. Damn, she was fun to be with! The laughter faded and Rhada glanced out the window. The sunset was nearly over, but there was still a glow in the west. "The weather looks good, are we still planning for a day at the beach tomorrow?" she asked. "Charlie and Suzi were going to meet us there."

"Oh, no, I'm sorry, I meant to tell you: I have to work."

"Well, poo!" said Rhada, her lips turning down in an adorable pout.

"Sorry," he said again. "We've got a bit of a situation to handle and Suvarov needs me in the office."

"He's just trying to keep you away from me," said Rhada. "I don't think he likes me."

"Why do you say that?"

"Oh, just the way he looked at me and acted the few times we've met."

"Don't pay any attention to that, he acts like that with everyone," laughed Ivan. But privately he wondered if she was right. Suvarov—and his father—were very old fashioned, traditional men and Rhada would definitely not fit their image of the right girl for him. Well, that was just too bad! They'd have to get used to it because he was going to be keeping Rhada around for a long time.

"You really have to go in?" persisted Rhada. "You mean I'm going to be all alone for two whole days?" She smiled and batted her eyes at him.

"Well, I do have tonight free. All night. Free."

Her smile returned. "All right then! Let's not waste a minute!"

* * *

Suvarov glanced up as Ivan Kosegan came into his office. Late again, and Suvarov knew why. He frowned at the young man and growled: "You picked a poor day to be late, Ivan." The lad went pale.

"I'm sorry, sir, it won't happen again. Uh, has something happened, sir?"

"You might say so."

"Bad news from Pandora?"

"Almost as bad as it can get: We've been kicked out."

"My god! How?"

"Well, the short version is that the natives assembled such a huge force that our people blinked and agreed to leave rather than fight. The long version is… a lot more complicated." Complicated and classified.

"But there wasn't another battle? We're leaving—I mean left—without another fight?"

"That's what the report indicates. The most recent message was sent as the evacuation was just beginning. I expect another once it's completed."

"Well, at least we don't have to deal with a massacre, sir."

Suvarov stared at his assistant. Ivan was the son of an old family friend. He was talented but had been stuck in a dead-end position in Russia's moribund military and Suvarov had plucked him out and brought him here. He was a hard worker and trustworthy and as his personal assistant he was privy to most of the secret goings-on that took place.

But he wasn't privy to Operation Alamo, nor would he be. Like any huge organization, the RDA had thousands of contingency plans to handle every situation that devious minds could think up. One of those plans was for the eventuality of a serious native uprising on Pandora. Ideally, any such uprising would be crushed. But in the event of failure, the fall-back position was to defend the base at Hell's Gate literally to the last man. No retreat was to be allowed. And considering that the only method of retreat could be tightly controlled, the garrison could be forced to fight to the last even if they were only mercenaries. Someone, even Suvarov wasn't sure who, had decided that a massacre—of course they didn't actually call it that—would serve the Corporation's interest better than a retreat, so the plan had been drawn up and Fred Lomax, the Corporation's sleeper agent on Pandora, had decided to implement it. Suvarov had never really agreed with the premise behind Alamo, but it was a decision made at a higher level than his.

But something had gone wrong. Something _else_ had gone wrong.

The new message was from Captain Harriet Kim, not Lomax. It was maddeningly short on details. Somehow, Kim had relieved Lomax and capitulated to the natives. There was nothing from Lomax and that wasn't good.

"No, no massacre," said Suvarov. "At least as far as we know. The evacuation was expected to take several weeks, Hopefully we'll get some more detailed news in the next few days."

"What happens now, sir?"

"Ha!" snorted Suvarov. "That's the sixty-four trillion dollar question, isn't it? All of this happened four years ago. The report states that the personnel were going to need to use the starship that was in orbit and the next to arrive to transport themselves home. That means that right now, as we sit here, there is one—count them: one—starship inbound that is loaded with unobtainium. When it arrives, approximately nine months from now, that will be the last. There's not a single kilogram in the pipeline after that. What that's going to do to the world economy, I can't begin to guess."

"It will be chaos, sir." Ivan was looking very pale now. "But what will we do? Send a military expedition to take back our base?"

"That would be the natural knee-jerk reaction, wouldn't it? They hit us, we hit them back. Action and reaction. But, Ivan, this is unlike any war ever fought. The time delays; not even during the Age of Exploration where they were limited to the speed of sailing ships did they have time delays this long. It complicates things enormously. I have a meeting with the Board in two hours. Here is a list of information I'm going to need for that. Get on this right away."

"Yes sir!" Ivan took the list and hurried out. Suvarov stared after him. He was a good boy and Suvarov was quite fond of him, but this current affair of his was becoming a matter of concern and not just because it made him late for work on occasion. Every young man was entitled to his follies, but the information Suvarov was getting indicated that it was becoming more serious than just dalliance. He had obligations to Ivan's father to look after the boy and make sure he didn't do anything foolish. This Rhada Patel was not a proper match for Ivan. Once the current crisis was over he would have to do something to straighten Ivan out.

He paused. _Patel?_ Why did that name sound familiar? He reached for his computer.

* * *

Ivan followed Suvarov into the Board Conference Room. He carried a small computer pad that was crammed with every bit of information that his boss might need for the meeting. He'd been here plenty of times before, even during some crises, but never one as big as this. The tension in the room was so thick you could cut it with a knife.

The room, itself was large but remarkably austere. No marble, no polished metals, no rare woods or expensive carpeting, the furniture was functional, but ordinary. The reason for that was because on occasion the room was used for press conferences or major announcements that would be seen by the whole world. It wouldn't do to make people think that the men and women in charge of the planet's resources might be keeping some of them for their own use. No, the _really_ ostentatious displays were kept out of sight of the public. The Chairman's _private_ conference room, for example…

People were still coming in and the meeting wasn't scheduled to commence for a few minutes yet. Ivan took a mental tally of the various department heads and their assistants as they arrived. There was the head of Public Relations—he didn't envy him! Over there was the Personnel Director and coming right behind was…

"_Rhada!"_ There she was, standing there, looking as confused as he felt. Several heads turned in his direction, but he hurried over to her. "Rhada! What the hell are you doing here?" he hissed.

"I don't know! Dr. Carlstein called me early this morning—right after I got back from your place—and told me to report to Dr. Pilsen." She jerked her head in the direction of where Dr. Carla Pilsen, head of the corporate Science Department stood conferring with another board member. She didn't look happy. "Ivan! Is it really true about Pandora?"

He looked at her sharply. "Who told you? That's' top secret!"

She shrugged. "Dr. Pilsen just said there had been fighting and that the Na'vi had driven our people off-planet!" Her expression became a ferocious scowl. "And you knew about it!"

"Rhada! I couldn't tell you and you know it! And I only found out the latest news a few hours ago."

"But what about Max? Have you heard anything?"

"Nothing specifically about him, no. But I do know that the base itself was not attacked. Calm down, I'm sure he's fine."

"Oh, I hope so!"

"In fact, he's probably already on his way home. But that still doesn't answer the question of what you are doing here."

"Dr. Pilsen just told me to bring all those early survey files, you know: the ones I was telling you about at dinner last night."

"What for?" But before she could answer, the meeting was called to order. He gave her hand a squeeze and went back to his boss.

Suvarov took his usual spot, two tables to the right of the Chairman's. Ivan sat next to him and pretended to be busy with his computer, but he was really scanning the faces of the other Board members. None of those faces looked happy, some of them looked downright grim. Only the Chairman looked even remotely confident and that was surely just for show—his job was in as much or more peril as anyone's. Suvarov's face showed nothing, but that was normal: the man could turn to stone when he wanted. Ivan wondered what his own face looked like. He was surely nervous, even though he would never be called on to speak here. He knew full well that Suvarov could easily lose his job over the current mess and if Suvarov went down, Ivan would go with him. But his eyes kept being drawn back to Rhada. She was across the room from him and looked really uncomfortable. Unlike him, she had never been here before. He almost asked Suvarov if he knew what was going on, but refrained.

"All right everyone," said the Chairman, "let's get started, we have a lot to discuss. You are all aware of the latest developments on Pandora. We need to discuss what our response should be."

"What I want to know," said Marie Follette, the Chairman's Chief of Staff, "is how this disaster was allowed to happen? How could a bunch of savages with stone weapons rout our security forces?" She stared right at Suvarov. Ivan winced. His boss had warned him that the meeting was going to go one of two ways: either it would be an honest attempt to make plans for the future, or it would be an exercise in scapegoating and ass-covering. There didn't seem much doubt which path had been chosen.

Suvarov was silent for a moment and then cleared his throat. "The specific tactical details of the incident and my department's analysis of them are all contained in my report to the Board. I could try to make excuses, Ms. Follette, but as Head of Security, this is ultimately my responsibility and I will not try to duck it." He paused and took an envelope from a pocket inside his jacket. He placed it in front of him on the table. "I offer my resignation to the Board."

Ivan sucked in his breath. Nearly everyone else in the room seemed to be doing the same. Rhada stared right at him with an expression of shock. There was a long moment of silence and then the Chairman shifted in his chair. He made a small wave with his hand. "Jeremiah, put that away. Or better yet tear it up. Heads might end up rolling over this, but I'm not about to start collecting them today! Right now we have far more important things to consider. How are we going to deal with the crisis on Pandora and keep the impact here on Earth to a minimum? I'd thank everyone to stay focuses on that and refrain from laying blame!"

Ivan let out his breath and everyone in the room seemed to relax slightly. Suvarov bowed his head in acknowledgement and retrieved the envelope and put it back in his pocket. As he did so, he glanced at Ivan and the corner of his mouth quirked up for an instant. Ivan rocked back in his chair. _I'll be damned! It was all staged!_ Yes, it made sense: Follette never would have asked her question without the Chairman's approval and then when the Chairman refused Suvarov's resignation, it squashed the whole Blame Game before it could even get started. Clever!

The Chairman then called on the Chief of Operations, a Chinese named Xianjiang, to summarize the situation concerning the flow of unobtainium and the movement of starships. With the aid of an animated display he did so. It was very much what Suvarov had told him earlier: One more fully loaded starship was inbound, then probably two starships loaded with refugees. "After that we can expect one more ship with a partial load, whatever had to be offloaded from ISV-9 during the evacuation. Based on the normal production and loading schedule, perhaps eight hundred tons, arriving in 2164. After that, we cannot expect any more at all until mining operations and shipments are resumed." Xianjiang sat down.

"And how long will that be?' demanded the Chairman. He directed the question to the Chief of Production, Hermann Schwartz.

"Hard to say, zir," replied the German, his accent was quite thick. "Anything ve dispatch to Pandora vill not arrive until early 2166. Even if ve assume that production could be resumed immediately—jah, I know that isn't going to happen—but even if it could, no new unobtainium could possibly reach us until late in 2171."

"Twelve years!" gasped someone from across the room. Ivan shook his head. It was nearly a twelve year round trip , what were they expecting? It always amazed him how supposedly smart people couldn't do basic arithmetic.

"Yes," nodded the Chairman, "we are heading for some difficult times. Supplies of unobtainium are going to be strictly limited for years." He nodded towards the Chief of Distribution. "Paul, I want your people to come up with a rationing plan that will allow us to keep the maximum number of industries from shutting down completely. I realize that they will have to drastically scale back production, but if we can arrange a prolonged slowdown instead of a sudden shutdown it will cause the least disruption."

"We are already working on that, sir. But I have to tell you that even though we can stretch this out for three, maybe four years, after that the well is going to run dry."

"I know that, but do your best." The Chairman paused and surveyed the room. His eyes finally settled on Suvarov. "Well, now we come down to the key question: how quickly can we resume production on Pandora and what's the best and quickest way to make it happen? Jeremiah?"

Suvarov stood up and Ivan went to full alert, ready to pull up charts or graphs at his command. "Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, I won't try to deceive you: reestablishing our operations on Pandora is not going to be easy or quick. Herr Schwartz's prediction of shipments in 2171 is hopelessly optimistic. We must assume that our base at Hell's Gate will be completely destroyed, either due to direct action taken by the natives, or just through natural deterioration caused by neglect and the harsh environment. Without a base to operate from, a military expedition will be severely handicapped." Suvarov gestured to Ivan and he projected the first diagram on the big screen. It showed a shipping schedule quite similar to what the Operation's Chief had used earlier.

"As you can see here," continued Suvarov, " we currently have one ISV in Earth orbit which is loading mining equipment for Pandora. Obviously we will have to delay its departure and change its cargo. A second ISV will arrive in nine months. In addition, ISV-11 is just completing construction and should be fully operational in another six months. By waiting until next year, we could dispatch a three-ship task force to Pandora about ten months from now, arriving in 2167. Those three ships could carry a military force approximately equal to the one recently destroyed, along with supplies to operate for several months. However, with no base, no living quarters, no repair facilities or fixed defenses, such a force would be unable to sustain itself, let alone protect renewed mining operations. If we include those missing items—in a bare minimum for survival—the size of the force we dispatch would shrink by nearly two-thirds: far too small a force to carry out its mission. It would risk being overwhelmed and destroyed before follow-up shipments could arrive to reinforce it." Suvarov paused to let these facts sink in.

"This leaves us with the alternative of shipping the materials for a new base of operations to Pandora first and storing them in orbit until later ships bring the military force itself. Based on the shipping available, we would not be ready to land on Pandora until 2170 at the earliest. I should add, this would only allow us to recreate what was there. The force would be no stronger than the one that the natives have already managed to destroy. If we want a stronger force, that will require more shipping and more time."

"Mein Gott," hissed Schwartz. "And that all has to be done before ve could even attempt to resume production!"

"I'm afraid so," nodded Suvarov. "There is the one bright spot that there will be a great deal of mining equipment stored in orbit. All the ships that were dispatched before we heard of the disaster—seven in all, I believe—would have arrived and unloaded before our expedition returns. Hopefully, once we re-establish ourselves, mining could resume quickly."

"Not if Hell's Gate has been destroyed as you say!" cried Schwartz. "Ze mine is much more than just big machines to dig in the ground! Ze refinery, living quarters, dozens of things! Gott! Ze cement plant and greenhouses! Ve cannot afford to ship concrete and potatoes to Alpha Centauri! Rebuilding all of that will take years before production can even resume. Ach!" the man shook his head.

"Well, we cannot ship cement plants if our ships are filled with military equipment and vice-versa," said Suvarov. "You can see the difficulties we face, sir."

"Decades before shipments can resume," said the Chairman grimly. "Establishing the initial operation didn't take that long!"

"We were not making a landing against a hostile foe then, sir," said Suvarov.

"Well, does it have to be a military expedition against the Na'vi?" asked the Public Relations man, a Japanese named Kurita. "Is there no possibility of making peace with the natives? If we didn't have to ship an army there we could re-start production much sooner, couldn't we?"

"Even if we did negotiate a peace," said Suvarov, "it would be completely irresponsible to send a new mining team to Pandora without some sort of protection. I might add that with the delays involved with communications and transport we might not get a definitive peace treaty for twenty years. We can hardly sit here on our hands waiting for word. We need to know what we are going to do _now_."

"Well, what if we landed in some new location?" persisted Kurita. "If we are going to have to build a new base anyway, couldn't we land somewhere where the natives aren't angry with us? Or maybe somewhere where there aren't any natives at all?"

"That is a possibility we are looking into," replied Suvarov. "In fact, I would absolutely recommend a new location far from the old. We have better mineral surveys now than we did when the initial location was selected and there are several suitable places. There are also a number of uninhabited islands we might build a base on, although I'm told none of them are particularly rich in unobtainium deposits. However, even taking those measures will not eliminate the need for a substantial security force. The flying animals the natives use give them far higher mobility than primitive people usually have. There is no guarantee they would not still attack us. And in any case, the native wildlife is a sufficient threat that the security forces would be needed even if the Na'vi were no threat at all."

"You're not painting a very pretty picture, Jeremiah," said the Chairman.

"I'm afraid not, sir. And I should add that I've only been talking about the difficulties of re-establishing an initial foothold on Pandora. If we become involved in an on-going war with the natives we are going to need a steady stream of new equipment, replacements and large amounts of ammunition. This will require a substantial fraction of our total shipping capacity—further slowing down the resumption of mining operations."

"Do you see any alternative?"

Suvarov frowned. "Not if we limit ourselves to conventional weaponry, no sir." A silent gasp spread through the room. Ivan looked at his boss in shock.

"Surely you aren't suggesting we use nuclear or chemical or biological weapons!" cried Kurita.

Suvarov shrugged. "You wanted options. This is one. And we wouldn't necessarily have to use them directly against the natives. We might be able to create an interdiction zone around our base that would deter them from entering. Please note that this would not substantially accelerate our start-up, but it might keep the long-term cost down."

A low babble erupted as people began furiously whispering among themselves. It died away when everyone noticed that Dr. Carla Pilsen was on her feet. Rhada was looking up at her nervously. The woman's face would have curdled new milk and her voice was as cold as the depths of space: "Before we decide to reduce Pandora to a _desert_, I'd like to propose another option, if you don't mind."

"Why certainly, Doctor," said the Chairman. "Please go ahead."

"Thank you. It may come as a surprise to some of you that despite all the hype to the contrary, Pandora is not the only place in the universe where unobtainium can be found." Ivan's eyes darted to Rhada. So that's why she was brought here! "In fact," continued Pilsen, "it can found all through the Alpha Centauri A system. Rhada?" The woman looked flustered, but she hit some buttons on her computer pad and a graph of some sort appeared on the main display. Ivan stared but could not make head or tail of it. Unlike the displays used by Suvarov and the Operations Director this was a technical display not intended for laymen.

"As you can clearly see," said Pilsen, "substantial amounts of unobtainium can be found on most of Polyphemus' moons. There are also scattering in the ring system. The asteroid belts also contain…"

"Ja! Ja!" interrupted Hermann Schwartz. "This ve all know! But that idea was discarded years ago! Too hard to mine in vacuum and zero-G! The ore is too deep! Too hard and too expensive!"

"More expensive than fighting an endless war while trying to run your mine?" countered Pilsen. "If you built your mines on the other satellites you wouldn't need any security forces at all! The very next ship leaving Earth could be carrying the specialized mining equipment you need. There would be no need for a fortified base. We could start receiving new shipments of unobtainium in twelve or thirteen years instead of twenty or twenty-five!" She stared at Suvarov. "If you are so anxious to use nukes, you can use them on the other moons to help get at the ore!"

"Dr. Pilsen," said the Chairman, "I can assure you that no one is anxious to use nukes. However, this is a very interesting proposal you've made and I'll admit it is not something I had thought of. Therefore, I think we shall recess this meeting until next week. During the interim, I want you and Hermann to get me some hard figures on the expense and likely output, along with a timetable for mining the other moons. Jeremiah, I'll want a similar report from you detailing the military option. Questions? Good. I'll see you all next week."

Everyone got to their feet. Ivan looked at his boss, but Suvarov shook his head. "Go back to the office, Ivan, I have a few things to say to the Chairman."

"Yes sir." He picked up his computer and hurried to catch up with Rhada.

* * *

Suvarov watched his young assistant leave in pursuit of his girl. Her presence here annoyed him. He hadn't realized she had become Pilsen's personal assistant. This had been a day of surprises and he didn't like surprises. It was his job to avoid surprises. He waited until he saw the Chairman leave and then followed him back to his office. He was sent straight in. "Well, that didn't go exactly according to plan," he said once the door was closed. "Pilsen blindsided me."

"Blindsided both of us," said the Chairman. "She's always been a loose cannon."

"Why haven't you gotten rid of her?"

"For the same reason no one's gotten rid of me: the right connections. She's got far too much prestige and awards and degrees to just dismiss. Most of the time she's actually an asset. But what do you think of her proposal?"

Suvarov shrugged. "Sounds like it might be feasible. But you do realize that it would mean abandoning Pandora entirely—and perhaps permanently. Are you ready to do that?"

"It certainly wouldn't be my first choice. As the scientists are so quick to point out: there's a lot more there than just the unobtainium. If we pull out now, it would be a de facto recognition of the Na'vi as the rightful owners of the planet. Might be damned hard to go back again later. That would seriously screw up a lot of plans."

Suvarov nodded. The RDA had made its fortune by planning for the long-term. He had seen a few of the long-range plans the Corporation had for Pandora—very few people had seen them.

"So what do we do?" asked the Chairman.

"Good question. If Pilsen's scheme does prove to be the best choice it's going to be difficult not to follow it."

"Yes, well, perhaps it would be wise to make sure that it's not the best choice."

"You really mean that? You favor the military option?" In spite of himself Suvarov was a bit surprised.

"My first choice would be that none of this had ever happened. But since Colonel Quaritch so thoroughly screwed up that option we have to do something else. Pulling out might be the most cost-effective option in the short term, but damn it, the idea of being run out by a bunch of blue-skinned savages really sticks in my craw!"

"Yes, I know what you mean. It does set a very bad precedent. So then, if you still want a military option we need to make it look more palatable than I've presented it so far."

"Yes, and Pilsen's proposal less so. I think I'll have a little talk with the good Doctor. Send her a message about being a team player. I'll talk to Hermann, too and make sure the figures he provides are suitably pessimistic. Pilsen knows science, but she's no expert on mining. If Hermann skews his numbers, she'll never know."

"Very good," said Suvarov. "I'll get to work on my end of things. If I'm allowed to assume absolutely state-of-the-art equipment I can reduce the size of the force we'd need significantly." He rose from his chair and left the office. On the way down in the lift the thought struck him that Dr. Pilsen was going to need more than a little talking to. There was nothing he could do directly, but perhaps a stronger message… yes. _Patel._ "Kill two birds with one stone," he said to himself. "Or maybe three."

* * *

"Where are you taking me?" cried Rhada Patel. She struggled helplessly in the grasp of two security men. Two more marched in front of her and two behind. "I haven't done anything wrong!" the men were no more responsive than they'd been when they'd dragged her out of her apartment. Initially she had not resisted, this was clearly a mistake. But after taking elevators and a shuttle car deeper and deeper into the enormous RDF facility that covered much of Qatar Island Rhada began to panic. "You have no right to do this! I… I'm a friend of Ivan Kosegan! He's _really_ important!"

It made no difference. They were practically carrying her now, her feet barely touching the floor. They reached the end of a long corridor and she was propelled through a door into a small room. She gasped when she saw a single chair with restraining straps and several tables filled with what looked like medical equipment. Two men wearing lab coats were waiting. She began to scream as they strapped her into the chair, but it was useless. In just a few moments she was completely immobilized. One of the lab-coated men injected her with something.

"There, that's better now, isn't it?" asked one of them. "Just relax and everything will be fine."

She struggled for a little while longer, but her strength was fading away. A drowsy fog seemed to fill her. What was happening? Her mind spiraled down into the fog.

"Now then, Miss Patel," said a voice. It was really a very pleasant voice when you stopped and listened to it. "We are going to ask you some questions and you are going to answer them, okay?"

* * *

"No, I'm sorry Ivan, I haven't seen Rhada," said Dr. Carlstein. "She didn't come in yesterday or today. It's not like her to not call if she can't make it. Poor timing, too, I must say, with all the work to be done. You say she's not at her apartment?"

"No one answers the door. No answer on her phone, either." A feeling rather like panic had been building in Ivan all day. Where was she? He hadn't seen her since the meeting. She had never disappeared like this before… _The meeting!_ Maybe Dr. Pilsen had her working on some special assignment! "Uh, thank you, Doctor. I'll keep looking."

"Try not to worry, Ivan. Young people are so flighty these days. I'm sure she'll turn up." Ivan just nodded and refrained from pointing out that he was a young person, too. He took his leave and hurried out to the lifts. His lunch hour was nearly up and he had to get back to his office. But damn it! He had to find Rhada! He checked the building directory in the lobby and saw that Dr. Pilsen's office was only three floors up. He made his decision and pressed the up button on the lift.

It took him twenty minutes to get in to see Pilsen. He was going to be late getting back to work.

"No, no, I haven't seen Ms. Patel since the meeting. She was really very useful there, you know. I asked Carlstein to lend her to me for a few days but he said she hasn't come in. You say she's disappeared?" Pilsen looked concerned.

"I can't find her anywhere, Doctor!" said Ivan in exasperation.

"You work for Suvarov, don't you?" said Pilsen, eyeing him closely. "I'd have thought you'd have ways of tracking a person down."

Ivan shook his head. "That's not really the sort of thing I'm involved with. And… and I wanted to check every possibility I could before I did anything… official."

"I see. Well, if I hear anything I'll let you know." Pilsen paused and a frown grew on her face. "How long have you worked for Suvarov?"

"Two years, Doctor."

"Huh. He's a very capable man, but he tends to see the world in just black and white. Well, good luck in finding Ms. Patel."

Ivan thanked her and hurried back to his office. He breathed a sigh of relief that Suvarov wasn't there. The Old Man had him gathering information on all sorts of robotic military hardware. Apparently the idea was to find ways to cut down on the number of actual people needed in a military expedition to Pandora in hopes that would eliminate some of the logistical "tail' needed. The trick would be finding gear that would function on Pandora without requiring a huge amount of maintenance—which would defeat the whole purpose.

He worked all afternoon and into the evening, but he couldn't get his mind off Rhada. Where had she gone? Suvarov came in, looked briefly at what Ivan had been doing, seemed to approve of it, and then left again. He indicated he wouldn't be back again until tomorrow. Ivan finished up and prepared to head home. He tried calling Rhada again—as he had been doing every hour—but once again just got her voice-mail. He slammed his fist down on his desk and swore. "Where is she?" He fumed for a few minutes but then Dr. Pilsen's words from earlier came back to him: _I'd have thought you'd have ways of tracking a person down._

Did he?

As Suvarov's personal assistant he had access to a lot of computer files that most people could not get at. When he first came to the RDA he'd played around with it a bit to amuse himself, but he'd never done any serious digging in areas he had no immediate business with.

_Let's see what I can find._

It didn't take long at all.

There was nothing he could find concerning her present whereabouts, but after only a few minutes searching he was able to call up her personnel file. Right at the top, in red letters , was the word: "Terminated" and yesterday's date.

"What? Why?" he said out loud. Fired? Quit? _Gone? _This made no sense! If she had quit or been fired then surely Dr. Carlstein would have known about it, would have said something about it! There had to be more! He dug deeper into the file. _Reason for termination… reason for termination…_

He had to use his priority authorization, but he finally found it. He stared at the entry in astonishment:

Reason for termination: Security Risk

"What the hell?"

* * *

Rhada Patel slowly came back to her senses. She was dizzy and sick to her stomach and seemed to be sitting on something hard and leaning against something just as hard. And it was hot, very hot. Unfamiliar sounds filled her ears and strange smells filled her nose—which did nothing to help her stomach. Where was she? What was going on? She tried to think back but it was all a blur. The last thing she remembered clearly was the big meeting in the board room. After that… after that… her apartment?

She looked down at herself. She was sitting on hard pavement in a narrow alley filled with trash. She was wearing blue jeans, a short-sleeved white blouse and some sort of slippers. They weren't her clothes. They were too big. How had she gotten them? She looked down the alley. One way seemed to lead to another street, but it was dark and dirty. In the other direction she could see some lights and the noises she was hearing came from that way. She staggered to her feet and then doubled over and vomited. It was a few minutes before she could straighten up. She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and stumbled towards the lights.

She got to the end of the alley and stopped, steadying herself with a hand on one wall. She looked out on a busy street, filled with people. Nearly all of them were dark-skinned and black-haired just like her. Indians? Was she in India? How had she gotten here? The street was lined with shops but just above them was the enclosed tube of a high-speed train. She looked down to her right and caught sight of a station platform and steps leading up to it. A lighted signs read: Jubbal.

_Jubbal, Jubbal, that's one of the great relocation cities in northern India, isn't it?_ She was having trouble thinking clearly, but she seemed to remember such a place. All those maps she loved to look at… Yes, yes, looking closer she could see that most of the buildings around her were standard RDA habitation modules. In the distance they climbed up the hillsides like some giant child's building blocks. Beyond the hills she could see tall mountains rearing up. During the great floods millions upon millions of people had to be resettled. Whole new cities were built, or existing cities had been vastly expanded. Jubbal was in the foothills of the Himalayas, high enough and cool enough that people could still survive there. But why was she here?

People were starting to stare at her. Most of them were dressed in traditional Indian clothing and she certainly was not. She looked down at herself and… damn! She was sweating rivers in the hot humid air, the blouse was plastered against her skin, and whoever had dressed her hadn't bothered with underwear. She hastily crossed her arms across her chest.

What to do? She searched her pockets with one hand, but there was nothing. No money, no ID, no phone. She needed a phone. If she could reach Ivan, he'd know what to do! She took a few tentative steps out from the alley and searched the passing faces for one that looked like it might be willing to help. Did anyone speak English here? Her grandparents had insisted she learn Hindi but she was from Chicago, dammit! She could understand Hindi fairly well, but speaking it… she was very rusty.

"Please… Can… you… help… me?" The woman she had addressed kept walking.

"Please, I need… a phone… I was…" what was the word for kidnapped? Did anyone even understand her?

"There she is!" A cry from her left caused her to spin around. Three young men were running towards her. She didn't recognize any of them, but they seemed to know her. Someone who would help…? She smiled as they got near.

"Hello…?"

They grabbed her.

She tried to cry out, but one of them clapped a hand across her mouth. They hustled her back into the alley she had just left and dragged her a few dozen meters down it. No one in the crowd made any effort to help her. One of the men got behind her and twisted her arm painfully while keeping a hand on her mouth. She squealed and tried to get loose, but she couldn't. The other two stood in front of her. "I _told_ you Hadj said she'd be on the _south_ side of the station!" said one of them. His accent was much different from her grandparents' but she could understand him.

"All right, all right! So you were right for once in your life," replied the biggest of the three. "But now that we've found her, let's get this over with."

"Damn," said the third one. "He didn't say she was hotter than a summer in the Kush! Look at her!"

"Hell of a shame to waste a beauty like her!" said the one holding her. "I know a few places where they'd pay a fortune for a slut like this!" Rhada squirmed in terror, unable to believe what she was hearing. Were they going to kill her or… what? But they were expecting to find her here! Who had sent them?

"Don't get any ideas!" snarled the big one. "We've got a job to do." Rhada's eyes grew wide as he drew a knife.

"Hey, come on!" said the third one. "Hadj said to make it look like a crime. No reason we shouldn't have a little fun before we finish with her."

"Well…" the one with the knife hesitated and then smiled. "Maybe we could take our time…" He stuck the knife in his belt and then reached out and tore open Rhada's blouse.

Rhada twisted violently and drove her knee into the man's groin. Her motion shifted the other one's hand enough that her teeth found flesh and she bit down as hard as she could. One screamed, the other groaned and suddenly she was loose. Without looking to see what the third one was doing she sprinted back up the alley toward the street. She plunged into the crowd and ran as fast as she could. She heard shouts behind her, but she didn't look back. She clutched her blouse closed with one hand and ran.

Down the street, turn right at the intersection and then run. There were more cries from behind her as she bumped into people and pushed them aside. Don't stop, keep running. Left at the next intersection. Her lungs were on fire as she gasped for breath, but she kept moving. Left, right, she took streets at random in hopes of losing her pursuers. Finally, she came to a larger street and there was a solid wall of people that she couldn't get through. She stopped and sucked in air and nearly vomited again. She could hear music and chanting and a lot of voices. Above the heads of the crowd she spotted flags and banners. What was this? Some sort of parade?

She looked around and unfortunately quite a few people looked back. She was incredibly conspicuous. She had to lose herself somehow. Or find help. Did they have policemen here? She craned her neck and looked. She didn't see a policemen—she saw one of the men who was trying to kill her. But he didn't see her and she ducked down out of sight for the moment. But he was only a dozen meters away and headed in her direction. His friends must be nearby. She looked around wildly, but there was nowhere to go except toward the parade.

She forced her way through the crowd, shoving people aside ruthlessly. People cried out in protest and some shoved back, but step by step she forced her way through them until she reached the front. There she stopped and looked in amazement. The 'parade' was a long procession of people, hundreds and hundreds of them. Many of them were painted blue and some carried banners with pictures of…

"Na'vi!" Yes, there was no doubt, the pictures were of the blue-skinned aliens from the planet Pandora. Rhada had heard about the groups and clubs and cults that were fascinated with the Na'vi, but she'd never seen them up close. _It doesn't matter who they are! I've got to get away!_ She heard a commotion behind her. One of the assassins? She didn't wait to find out. She dashed forward and plunged into the group of cultists. She almost kept right on going, but someone grabbed her arm. She nearly lashed out , but then she saw an elderly man with a blue-painted face looking at her with harmless curiosity.

"Whoa! Whoa there, young lady!" he said in Hindi. "What's your hurry?"

"Help," gasped Rhada. "Please, help me." She spoke in Hindi, but the man immediately answered in English.

"You are an American?"

"Yes!" She almost said she was with the RDA, but realized that would not be likely to endear her to Na'vi cultists! "Yes, I'm an American. Please! Some men are after me!"

The man looked around and then took off a long robe he was wearing and wrapped it around her. "Well, then I think you should come with us."

* * *

"What do you mean she's gone?" Ivan stared across the tavern table at his friend, Charlie Duncan. He'd arranged to meet him after work. Charlie stared back in confusion.

"Just what I said: she's gone, vanished!" said Ivan. "There's not a thing left in her apartment!"

"Have you contacted Security?" asked Duncan.

"_I'm_ security! And so are you, in case you've forgotten!" Duncan was a lieutenant in the local RDA security force.

"Settle down, Ivan! I'm sure there's an explanation for this."

"Well, I want to know what it is! I checked her files and it says that she's been terminated! Terminated as a security risk!"

"Rhada? A security risk? You're kidding." Ivan had been friends with Duncan almost as long as he'd been here. They'd had a lot of fun together. He hadn't seen as much of him since he started going with Rhada, but they'd done some double dates. Charlie and Rhada were friends, too.

"No I'm not. But get this: There is no record—none!—of her leaving the island!"

"Well, that's pretty damn peculiar," said Duncan. "No one enters or leaves the island without a record being made! This is the most secure place on the whole damn planet!"

"Well, either she's still here—which seems pretty doubtful," said Ivan, "or she left without a record being made. If she was terminated as a security risk then she must have been escorted out. _Somebody_ has to know about it!"

"Have you asked Suvarov?"

"No… I… I don't know who to trust, Charlie. I mean, Security _has_ to be involved in this. And if Security is involved then Suvarov has to know. But he hasn't told me a thing!" Ivan couldn't keep the hurt… the _betrayal_ he felt out of his voice.

"He knows about you and Rhada?"

"What _doesn't_ he know about?"

"Damn…"

"Charlie, you've got a lot more contacts with the rank and file than I do. Can you ask around? See if anyone knows anything? Someone's got to know something!"

Duncan looked doubtful. "I don't know, Ivan, I could get in a lot of trouble…"

"Charlie! Come on! It's Rhada! She's your friend, too!"

"All right, keep your shirt on. I'll see what I can find out."

"Thanks, Charlie, thanks a lot." Ivan slapped his friend on the shoulder and then left. He was on his way back to his apartment when his phone pinged. It was Suvarov.

"Yes sir?"

"Come to the office right away, Ivan."

"Yes sir." His immediate thought was that Charlie had betrayed him and that he was about to be arrested—had he actually done anything illegal?—but there were no guards waiting to seize him. Instead, Suvarov was there talking with Gerardo Lourie, the Director of Communications.

"There's no way you can jam this transmission?" Suvarov was saying.

"If I'd had a few weeks warning, perhaps," replied Lourie. "But with fifteen minutes? Not a chance!"

"If we'd been able to _find_ you, you would have had four hours warning," growled Suvarov.

"Not everyone lives in their office, Jeremiah," replied Lourie testily. "And four hours wouldn't have made any difference either. It's not like I can order a few switches thrown and jam the transmission!"

"Transmission, sir?" asked Ivan innocently, deciding this might be a good time for a distraction.

"Yes," said Suvarov leaning back in his chair and scowling. "Apparently, as part of the agreement made with the Na'vi regarding the evacuation of our people on Pandora, they were allowed to make a transmission directly to Earth in the clear. It should be arriving in… fourteen minutes. Our own people on the orbital station warned us that it was coming, but only with six hours notice. It took two _hours_ for anyone to realize that this was important enough to inform the Board!" Suvarov snorted in disgust.

"The _Na'vi _are sending a transmission, sir? I… I'm surprised that they'd even know such a thing was possible—let alone want to do it."

Suvarov's expression became even darker. Ivan had rarely ever seen him this angry. "Yes. That's the part of all this you don't know about, Ivan. Hardly anyone knows about it. It wasn't the Na'vi alone who defeated our forces—they had help."

"Help? From who?"

"As incredible as it seems, some of our own people—humans!—helped the Na'vi. Damned traitors!"

"My god…" whispered Ivan. "Why?"

"The ringleader was one of the avatar drivers. We were warned that there was a danger that something like this might happen: the avatar's life would become more real, more important than their true human selves. We don't have all the details, but apparently some of them switched sides at a critical moment. And not just the avatar drivers: some of the scientists helped the Na'vi, too! Bastards!"

"Do we know what's in this transmission, sir?"

"According to the warning, it will show 'the Na'vi side of the story'. Just a batch of damn lies and propaganda, I'm sure. I was just conferring with Mr. Lourie to see if there was any way to stop this from reaching the public." He turned and looked back at the Communications Chief.

Lourie just shrugged. "We control 90% of the information services, but the other 10% are outside our control—and fiercely so. As I said, there's no time to arrange to jam the signal itself. Dozens of receivers are going to pick it up and there will be no way to stop it once that happens. Our best bet now will be to come up with an appropriate response. Any attempt to suppress it would just make matters worse in my opinion."

Ivan was stunned. All this effort to keep the disaster a secret was about to become irrelevant. Everyone would know! Rebellion, defeat and no more unobtainium! He wanted a drink, but Suvarov allowed no alcohol in the office.

"Uh… what do you want me to do, sir?"

Suvarov shrugged and scowled at Lourie. "It doesn't look as though there's anything we _can_ do. So, pull up a chair and let's watch this transmission!"

* * *

Rhada collapsed into the chair that was offered to her. The man who had rescued her, Manak Gupta was his name, had taken her back to the place where he lived—but only after they had finished their march. She was utterly exhausted, but apparently safe. She had not seen anything of her three assailants during the march, they must have lost her trail and never thought to look among the marchers.

"You must be hungry and thirsty," said Manak. He went to a cupboard in the tiny habitation module and took out several packages. He handed them to her. They both had the RDA logo on them. One contained a synthetic fruit juice and the other an oatmeal-like mush. It was nearly tasteless, but she wolfed it down. She had no idea how long it had been since she last ate.

"Thank you," she said. "And thank you for hiding me. I'd be dead now if it wasn't for you."

"You are really certain the men were going to kill you?" asked Manak. The man had lowered himself onto some cushions facing her. His English was very good. It had a distinct British accent.

"Yes, yes, they said so. The one said he wanted to do it right away, but the other convinced him to… to… wait."

"And they were looking specifically for you? They were not just street ruffians looking for any prey?"

"It certainly seemed that way. They said that someone named… Hadj, I think it was, had sent them to find me."

Manak frowned and scratched the gray beard he sported. It looked rather odd with the blue face-paint he still wore. "You are not, by chance, fleeing from the RDA, are you?"

"No, no I'm not." Was she? How had she gotten here from Qatar?

"Well, you must be working for the RDA then. There's not really any other explanation that I can see."

She stared at him and then slowly nodded. "Yes, I'm a geologist with the RDA. The last thing I remember was being in Qatar. Please, do you have a phone? I really need to call someone."

"I can get a phone for you, but who were you planning to call?"

"My boyfriend. He's in Qatar."

"Also working for the RDA."

"Yes." She decided not say what he did there.

"It might be better to think things through before rushing ahead, Rhada."

"But why? I really need…"

"Patience! I think I deserve a little consideration after rescuing you and feeding you. Clearly, something… unusual—and dangerous—is going on. Before I put myself at risk I'm going to need some questions answered."

"Oh… oh, I hadn't thought about that. I hadn't thought about putting you in danger, too. I'm sorry." Rhada looked around, afraid the door might suddenly burst open and the assassins rush in.

"We are safe here," said Manak, clearly understanding what she was thinking. "There is a neighborhood watch and we are surrounded by friends."

"Are they all… Na'vi supporters like you?"

"Mostly. You see, the city is almost entirely made of these standard –issue modules." He waved his hand to take in his home. "They are all exactly alike: living space, eating space, bathroom space, storage closet, wall screen…" Rhada looked in surprise at the large TV-screen Manak had indicated. "Ah, you are surprised at such a 'luxury', child? Bread and circuses, bread and circuses, my dear."

"What?"

"Just an historical reference. It means that if the authorities keep the people fed and entertained they won't make trouble." He pointed to the empty food container. "And it works—for the most part. The RDA feeds us and entertains us and the vast majority make no trouble. Do you know any history, Rhada?"

"Not a lot. I studied geology in college."

"Ah, yes, so you said. But as I was saying, since every module is like every other, people can move from one part of the city to another without much fuss. It's not like any of us actually own anything. People with similar backgrounds or interests can gather together in a neighborhood. In some ways it is not a bad system. In some ways."

"Excuse me, Manak, but you seem to be more… educated than… than…"

"Than you'd expect to find in a dump like this?" Manak smiled. "Yes, I'm not from around here any more than you are. Once, quite some time ago now, I was a university professor—in London."

"Really?" gasped Rhada. "How on Earth did you end up here?"

"I suspect I got here in a similar—though somewhat less dramatic fashion—as you did."

"What? What do you mean?"

"In my case it's quite simple: my radical views upset the people in authority. I was fired from my job and could not find work anywhere else. Or to be more honest: I was unwilling to abandon my radical views so I could find work elsewhere. I had my choice of a hundred relocation cities to disappear into. I chose this one because my family had originally—generations ago—come from this area. I was getting in touch with my roots, you could say. But you, who did you upset so much in the RDA that they sent you here to die. Rhada? For from your tale, that surely must have been their goal."

"I don't _know!_" she cried. "I've never been involved in any radical causes! I just did my job! Oh, this is a nightmare! I want to go _home!_ Please get me a phone!" She had been holding it in all day, but now she started to cry. She was so scared!

Manak moved closer and gently patted her on the head like she was a small child. "Mawey, girl, mawey. Calm, calm. You are safe for now. But if I get you a phone you must think very carefully about who you call. Your enemies must be very powerful. There is no telling where they might have ears. If you give yourself away…"

Rhada wept harder. What if there was no way out? What was she going to do?

Suddenly there was a pounding on the door. Rhada screamed and flung herself into a corner. Panic gripped her. Was this the end? But a voice was shouting outside and it sounded very young. Manak made a soothing gesture. "It's all right, it's just a young friend. Calm down, Rhada, no one will hurt you." He opened the door and a boy of twelve or thirteen darted in chattering in Hindi so fast Rhada could not follow it at all. Manak turned and made the same gestures at him. "Kay! Kayanoush! Slow down! What is it?" The boy was practically dancing in excitement but eventually slowed down enough that he could be understood.

"Manak! Manak! Turn on the TV! There is a message! A message from the Na'vi!"

"What nonsense is this?" snorted Manak. "You should not make up such stories, Kay!"

"No! It's true! It's true! Look!" The boy ran to the TV and began fiddling with the controls. The wall-screen came to life and flashed through a dozen different channels in just a few seconds. But then it stopped and the blue face of a Na'vi filled the screen. The boy touched another control and the image zipped backwards until it was replaced by a human face. This one, a man, was speaking in British-accented English and seemed strangely excited for a news commentator. Rhada stopped her crying and stared.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we interrupt our normal program for something quite extraordinary. A number of radio observatories have just received a transmission from the planet Pandora. This is not a usual communications from the human outpost there, rather, it is a message from the native Na'vi. We are not sure of the circumstances behind this message, but we have been assured that the radio observatories, using a parallax location technique, have verified that this transmission did, indeed, come from Pandora. This is not a hoax. We will play the message in just a moment, but we want to advise our audience that there are some disturbing images contained that might not be appropriate for all viewers."

"My god," whispered Manak.

"I told you! I told you!" cried the boy.

"Yes you did, now be quiet and watch."

The commentator blinked off and a Na'vi appeared. Rhada thought it was a female. She wore some elaborate beadwork. More of the natives could be seen in the background. Beyond them was forest.

"People of the planet Earth," said the Na'vi in accented but plainly understandable English, "I am Mo'at, the Tsahik of the Omaticaya."

"That's like a priestess," whispered Manak to Rhada. The boy shushed him.

"I send a message to you. I am speaking for all the Na'vi people in this. We understand that this message will take a very long time to arrive at your world. But things have happened here on our world that you must know of. I send tidings of great sadness for both you and my own people. What I tell you now is the truth and you must believe us." Rhada sucked in her breath. The fighting! That must be what this is about!

"This was our home," continued the Na'vi called Mo'at. The image changed to show one of the enormous trees that grew on Pandora. Rhada had seen pictures like this before, but it was still breath-taking. In the low-gravity, the trees could grow to as much as 500 meters high. The picture shifted and showed hundreds of Na'vi around the base of the tree and moving up and down on a spiral walk-way. There were adults and children and they all seemed happy. Rhada thought she had seen some of these images before, perhaps on some documentary. Or maybe in a message from Max? Oh, where was Max in all this? She longed for her big brother to come and make everything right! The image changed again and Mo'at was back on the screen.

"This was our home," she said again. "We had lived here for more generations than can be counted. We raised our children in its branches and we buried our dead at its roots. But then the humans came. They craved the rocks that lie under our home, the un-ob-tain-i-um. We understand that these rocks are very precious to you humans, but no more precious to you than our home was to us. The humans came and with less than an hour's warning they told us to leave. Leave our home and go somewhere else. We refused. We refused and this is what they did."

Again the image changed and this time it was from a camera mounted on a vehicle, a helicopter Rhada guessed because there were other helicopters in the image including one enormous one with four big rotors. In the distance was the huge tree. Without warning missiles began to leap away from the helicopters trailing smoke and fire. Rhada gasped as explosions blossomed around the base of the tree. Flames leapt up and great chunks of the tree were blasted away. More missiles and yet more followed the first. The trunk of the tree was wrapped in smoke and fire, but a few tiny blue figures could be seen running away. It went on and on and then finally, horribly, the tree began to sway and then it crashed over, flinging up a huge cloud of dust and smoke. Suddenly Mo'at was back on the screen.

"This is what they did. Almost a hundred of my people were killed or badly injured. My own hus-band was among the dead." The woman's face was stern, but a tear glinted in one eye. "This is what our home looks like now." Another shift of scene and Rhada cringed in horror. A blackened, ash-covered landscape was presented. Smoke still rose in some spots. Grimy yellow bulldozers lumbered about shoving mounds of debris before them. Rhada glanced at Manak. The old man was sitting rigidly with clenched fists, his face twisted in anger. After a moment Mo'at was back again.

"I am told, I have learned, that while our bodies might be different from yours, that what is in the hearts of humans is no different from what is in the hearts of the Na'vi. The same love and hate is in both you and us. You can understand then, I hope, the anger we felt at what had been done to us. In our anger we called upon the other clans of the Na'vi to come to our aid. We confess that we did so in hopes of driving the humans away and to gain our revenge. Many did come to help us, but the leader of the humans decided to strike first. He gathered all his war machines and attacked." A brief image of a huge swarm of helicopters filled the screen and then vanished again. Where were the Na'vi getting these images Rhada wondered?

"A great battle was fought," continued Mo'at. "Many humans and many Na'vi were slain. But the Na'vi were victorious. We cast down your machines, even the great one carrying the human leader." The TV now showed the burned-out hulk of the big four-engined helicopter Rhada had seen earlier. It lay smashed and broken on the forest floor. How on Earth had they managed to do that? Rhada was astounded.

"Yes!" shouted the boy, pumping his fist.

"The battle was won," said Mo'at. "The humans retreated to their fortress. The Na'vi massed even more strength to attack this place. But we did not wish for more blood to be spilled. We had revenge enough. We wanted only that the humans leave our world. The two thousand humans in the fortress were at our mercy. We could have slain them all, but we offered them the chance to leave instead. The new human commander was wiser than the old one and accepted our offer. The humans boarded their ships and left our world. Even now they are on their way back to you."

"Eywa be praised," whispered Manak. Rhada perked up: Max was on his way home?

"We tell you these things so that you will understand. We have no wish to fight you humans, but this is our world. It belongs to the Na'vi. You have no right to take it, not any part of it. If you try, we will fight you again. We know you have many terrible weapons, but if you come back we will fight you all the same.

"So we say to you: leave us in peace! Some of the human scien-tists have told us that the gray rocks, the un-ob-tain-i-um can be found on the other worlds near ours. Take that! You are welcome to it. But leave us and our world alone!" Mo'at paused for a moment and then spoke again.

"We do not wish to be your enemies. We have come to know some of the humans and we know it is possible for us to live in friendship. A time may come when we will welcome you back to our world as brothers and sisters. We hope that day comes. But when it does come it is we, the Na'vi, who will invite you back to our world. If you come back uninvited, it will be at your peril.

"Finally, I want to tell you that not all the humans were forced to leave. A few who we know are friends were allowed to stay. It is what they wished and what we wished. They will speak to you now. To tell you why they made this choice. And to say good-bye to those they love on Earth." Mo'at stepped aside and the camera tilted down and then shifted more to show several humans. Rhada was startled at the size difference between them and the Na'vi. Until you saw them side-by-side it was easy to forget how big the Na'vi were. The camera focused in on a man with a scraggly beard. He was wearing a breathing mask.

"Hi, I'm Norman Spellman," he said. "I'm here on Pandora and I'm here of my own free will. I have chosen not to go back to Earth. The Na'vi are good people. What Mo'at has told you is the truth. What the humans were trying to do here was a crime and had to be stopped. I'm glad it has been stopped. It is a tragedy that so many on both sides had to die, but the Na'vi had no choice. I beg you all to heed their warning and not come back." He paused, looked down and then back at the camera. "Mom? Dad? I know this is hard. You didn't want me to come all the way out here in the first place. But I'm happy here. This is the right thing for me to do. I'll miss you, but I won't forget you. I love you both." The man was choking up and he turned away.

A woman stepped forward and made a very similar statement. Then another man. Rhada was amazed that these people would be willing to stay behind. How many were there? Another man came to the camera. He looked just like…

"_Max!"_

"Who?" asked Manak.

"Max!" shrieked Rhada. "That's my brother! Oh, no, Max, _no!_" She was right next to the TV, her hands on the screen.

"…I want to reiterate what the others have said," said Max. "Pandora is a priceless treasure. Please don't destroy it. There's plenty of unobtainium elsewhere in this star system. Mine that instead. To my family: try to understand what I'm doing. Rha? Rha, please don't grieve for me. This is what I was born for." Max's face was running with tears to match her own. "I love you little sister. I'll always love you no matter how far apart we are. Maybe we'll meet again someday.' Til then, good-bye."

"Max! No, Max_, please!_" Rhada collapsed and slid down the wall until she was a little lump on the floor, sobbing helplessly.

* * *

Ivan Kosegan watched the display and forced himself to sit absolutely still. _Max Patel! He was one of the traitors? Did Suvarov know this already? Rhada! Is Rhada caught up in this somehow?_ Very deliberately, very casually he crossed his legs and feigned boredom by checking the time and stifling a yawn. But inside he was seething. Max was a traitor? Rhada had been fired as a 'security risk'? It had to be connected! And Suvarov hadn't said a word! Part of him wanted to spring up, grab him by his lapels and demand to know where Rhada was. He had to know! But he forced himself to remain seated. He knew Suvarov well enough to know that the Old Man would never respond to a direct threat—except to have Ivan thrown into a detention cell. If he let his anger get the better of him now, he'd throw away any chance he had to find Rhada. So he took a deep breath and continued to watch the video display.

A dozen more humans made their statements and then the last one came before the camera. Ivan was amazed to see that he was in a wheelchair. "That's' him!" snarled Suvarov. "Sully! He was the ringleader! Bastard!"

"Jake Sulley, here," said the man. "I've got no one on Earth to say good-bye to, but I'll repeat the warning to stay clear. Also, I wanted to let the RDA know that there's about twenty tons of unobtainium in storage down here. The Na'vi have confiscated it as reparations for all the damage you guys have done. Spoils of war and all that." The man actually smiled. "Anyway, they've turned it over to us. There will probably be some stuff we'd like to buy from you down the road. Just wanted to let you know we can pay for it. We'll be in touch through the orbital station. That concludes our broadcast. Have a nice day!" Sulley waved at the camera and the then the image was cut off.

"Well, this is truly a mess," said Gerardo Lourie. "How the hell are we going to spin this?"

"I don't know," growled Suvarov. "And I'm too tired and angry to think clearly. I'm sure the Chairman will want to meet about this in the morning. We'll deal with it then. Gerardo, good night. Ivan, go to bed."

"Yes, sir." Ivan popped to his feet, happy for an excuse to escape. He left the office and took the lift down to the promenade level of the RDA facility. It was all one enormous building really, malls and apartment towers all connected together. It ran twenty-four hours a day and there was a crowd even at this hour. Ivan wasn't the least bit sleepy. He wanted to walk and think.

What the hell was he going to do? If he confronted Suvarov he would either deny everything or just tell him to forget about Rhada. In either case, Ivan would have no leverage at all. _Forget about Rhada?_ Could he? They weren't engaged or anything. Just in love. _Am I? Is there any doubt of it, you fool?_ No, there wasn't. If the desperation, the raw-edged panic he was feeling for his lost woman wasn't love then there was no such thing! He was not going to give her up! Even if he had to… what? What was he willing to do to get Rhada back?

_Anything, dammit!_

Really? Anything? Give up his career? Oppose Suvarov openly? Go to his father? Risk his life even?

_Yes!_

The realization restored a measure of calm to him. He at least knew what his objective was and what he was willing to pay to get it. The question remained: how?

_I need some help._

But who would help him? Who could he trust? Charlie, yes, but Charlie was already doing whatever he could. It would do no good to go nag him again right now. Who else would dare help him when Suvarov was the enemy?

_The old saying goes: the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Suvarov must have a lot of enemies..._ There was no doubt that he did, but would any of them be willing to help Ivan in what, to them at least, would be something too trivial to matter in their games of power?

_Dr. Pilsen?_

She was definitely opposing Suvarov on the Pandoran matter. And Rhada was one of her people. Would she help? Only one way to find out! He had no trouble locating the tower housing Pilsen's apartment. But he was becoming increasingly paranoid about being watched or followed. He took a roundabout route and then the service elevator to Pilsen's floor. It was very late by then. He had to buzz three times before she answered the door.

"Mr. Kosegan?" she said warily through the intercom. "Whatever can you want from me at this time of night?"

"Doctor, please, can I come in? I need to talk to you about Rhada Patel. I'm alone."

"All right, just a minute. " He waited there, more nervous by the second, until the door opened. Pilsen was wearing a robe and slippers. Her silver-gray hair was a mess. She let him in and shut the door. "Have you found Ms. Patel?" she asked.

"Not yet." He looked around warily. "Is it safe to talk here?"

"Are we bugged, do you mean? Actually, yes, there are bugs and there is a monitoring camera outside my door." Ivan turned pale, but Pilsen put out a hand. "Not to worry, I have my own resources, too, you know. The bugs are here and the camera is there and I assure you that none of them are recording a thing right now except silence and an empty hallway. My techs still beat his techs." She smiled. "Coffee? Tea?"

"Oh, yes, coffee would be good." He sat down and waited until she returned from the kitchen and handed him a cup. She had tea.

"So if you haven't found her, what are you doing here?" she asked as she sat on the sofa and tucked her feet under her.

"I have found out some things. Did you see the broadcast from Pandora?"

She laughed. "Of course! I'm sure nearly everyone on the planet has seen it by now. An amazing thing. The more I think about it, the more amazed I become. But what does this have to do with your Ms. Patel?"

"Did you see the humans who were making statements at the end?"

"Yes, but…wait. The one named Patel. It's a common name, is he any relation to…?"

"Her brother. They are very close," said Ivan. "And I found a file stating that Rhada had been terminated as a security risk. The two things have to be connected!"

Pilsen looked impressed. "Yes, it would certainly seem likely. Many would consider the humans who stayed on Pandora to be traitors—I don't, but others would. Suvarov would consider any relations also to be suspect."

"Rhada has never been involved in any subversive activity!" cried Ivan.

"So?" replied Pilsen with a shrug. "Guilt by association is nothing new. The reason for my de-bugging the bugs in here was because of a perfectly innocent visit I had, oh, almost fifteen years ago now. The former head of security used a recording of it to twist my arm over an issue we disagreed on. Come to think of it, it involved Pandora, too."

"So you aren't even angry about this?" demanded Ivan in an outraged voice.

"I'm angry that a member of my department was terminated without my knowledge, but in the light of recent events I doubt I could have saved her job even if I had been informed. We live in dangerous times, young man."

Ivan's mouth dropped open he didn't know what to say.

"But at least you know what happened to her," continued Pilsen. "Have you managed to contact her?"

"No! That's just it, Doctor, there's no record she ever left! The termination notice was under about four layers of security I had to dig through. Everything in her apartment has vanished. It's like she disappeared into thin air!"

A frown appeared on Pilsen's face. "You don't say," she said slowly. "That, as the saying goes, is a horse of a different color. When people are fired it is one thing, but when they are made to disappear that is something else again. Yes… yes, that could be the reason…" She tapped a long finger against her cheek.

"What reason? What are you talking about?"

"You were there at the meeting, weren't you? Who would you say were the contending sides at that meeting?"

"Uh, well you were pushing for mining the other moons and the Chairman and Suvarov were…"

"Pushing the military option," finished Pilsen. "After the meeting the Chairman had a little chat with me trying to get me to drop my objections to using force. It didn't work of course. I've held my post through four chairmanships and I expect to hold it through four more. I don't scare easily, Mr. Kosegan, and I have a lot of backing. Still… Jeremiah tends to forget that at times. Yes…"

"What do you mean? What does this have to do with Rhada?" Ivan was completely confused.

"She was there assisting me at the meeting. Suvarov saw her there. He probably thought she was a personal assistant, perhaps someone close to me, someone I cared about." She paused and looked embarrassed for an instant. "I'm sorry, that was rather awful of me, wasn't it? I didn't mean to imply that I don't care about Ms. Patel . But Suvarov probably assumed a much closer relationship than existed. If he could make someone close to me disappear, well, perhaps it would intimidate me. The business with her brother was probably a secondary consideration." Pilsen straightened up and put her feet on the floor, a determined look on her face. "As I said: I don't scare easily and I don't like it when people try to scare me. What can I do to help you, Mr. Kosegan? That's assuming, of course, that I can trust _you_ and that you aren't just another ploy of our dear Jeremiah Suvarov." She smiled sweetly at him.

"I… I only want to find Rhada!" gasped Ivan. "I love her!"

"For some reason I believe you. I say again: what can I do to help?"

"Can you find her?"

Pilsen looked askance. "What makes you think I can find her? That would imply that I could have found her when you asked about her before and chose not to. I find that a bit insulting actually."

Ivan's mouth dropped open again. Somehow he'd convinced himself that if he could get Pilsen's help she'd be able to fix it all with a wave of her hand. Idiot! "I… I don't know. I just needed to talk to someone. But surely you must be able to do something!"

"I can make some discrete inquiries. I can pass the word among my contacts to keep an eye open for her. If you should find her I can take steps to protect her from further persecution. But I'm afraid that's about all. I'm sorry, young man, you'll have to fight this battle yourself."

"I see," said Ivan, thoroughly deflated. "Well, thank you for your time, Doctor." He got to his feet.

"If I can make a suggestion," said Pilsen, rising as well. "Don't do anything rash. Confronting Suvarov will do far more harm than good. Keep doing your job, keep your eyes and ears open. If you find out anything useful, keep me informed—I'll send you a secure phone you can use."

Ivan thanked her again and then headed for his apartment. He had to be back at work in less than six hours.

* * *

"General, thank you for coming," said Jeremiah Suvarov. He gestured his guest to a chair and then sat down opposite him.

"Glad to do it, Jeremiah," said General Elshami. "But, frankly, I was very surprised to hear from you, what with all that's been happening."

"It's true that things have been a trifle unsettled lately. But life goes on—and so does business." Suvarov regarded the man. He had never looked much like a soldier and without his uniform he looked like an accountant. But the country he worked for had been of use in the past and would be so again.

"True," said Elshami, "but in the aftermath of the Na'vi transmission I find it difficult to believe you would be in need of our services—unless this is about some other matter."

"No, you have guessed correctly why you are here—you always were perceptive, Davi."

"You truly intend to use force against the Na'vi now? There will be rioting in the streets! I'm not sure my superiors would be willing to get involved with such a thing."

Suvarov grimaced. Elshami was correct: the wave of public opinion in the wake of the Na'vi broadcast had been enormous, unlike anything he'd seen before. There were a dozen official investigations going on in a dozen different countries. It was even overshadowing the announcement that unobtainium shipments would soon be coming to an end. He suspected he was going to be tied up for _years_ making statements and denials of wrongdoing and soothing ruffled feathers. Retirement was looking better and better. The planned meeting to make the final decisions regarding the return to Pandora had been delayed and delayed again, while the Chairman lined up his ducks. But they _would_ be going back. "Relax, Davi, your involvement will be as anonymous as always. But you are correct: a direct attack on the natives is now out of the question. We shall probably have to take a far less direct approach—that's where you come in."

Elshami's eyebrows went up with an expression of skepticism. "Jeremiah, we can custom-build a plague for you, but it will hardly be anonymous. The Pandoran DNA and cell structure is sufficiently different that Earthly diseases cannot affect them—and vice versa. While it's true we can design a virus to get around those differences, it would be completely obvious to any scientist what had been done. We have no desire to be caught in genocide!"

"No, of course not," said Suvarov. "That would be immoral. And we would never ask you to design a disease to be used against the Na'vi."

"Then what…?"

"There are other creatures on Pandora besides the Na'vi, my friend. Two species, in particular, are of interest to us: the flying animals, the Banshees, and the large grazing animals, Hammerheads they call them. Both were used with great affect against us. Without them, the Na'vi are just overgrown monkeys with stone weapons. We would like for you to design something that would make those animals… less dangerous."

"Ah, I see. Clever. Such a thing would draw far less attention. However, I doubt that our researchers have much information on those beasts."

"Not a problem," said Suvarov. "We can supply you with everything you need. You'll do it then?"

"I can promise nothing. I will have to consult with my superiors and get back to you. One thing I can tell you, though: it will not be cheap!"

"I wasn't expecting it to be, General," said Suvarov with a smile. "Well then, I shall expect to hear from you soon. " He got to his feet. Elshami did so as well and they shook hands. Suvarov walked him to the outer office where Ivan was working. After seeing Elshami out he returned to stand next to Ivan's desk.

"How are things coming?"

Ivan looked up. "Fine, sir. I'm just organizing all these different reports from the subsections into the final draft for the meeting. Is that still on for the day after tomorrow?"

"Yes. Hopefully we can finally take a vote and be done with this." He stepped around the desk and peered over Ivan's shoulder at the computer display. "You can delete the maintenance sections on those robotic sentry units. No need to trouble anyone with that right now. Keep it simple."

"Yes, sir." Ivan obediently did as he was directed but never looked up. The boy had been moody and distracted lately—still mooning over that damn girl, do doubt. Young people got so obsessed with things, convinced that this was the one True Love of their lives and that there could never be any other. It was nonsense, of course, and Ivan would eventually find some new lover and forget about the Patel girl. Getting rid of her had been the right decision even if it had not had the desired effect on Dr. Pilsen: the old bat was contesting all the bogus figures Hermann was feeding her and she showed no sign that she was going to submit quietly at the upcoming board meeting. Oh well, two birds was still a good score for one stone. But he was worried about Ivan…

"Ivan? Take the rest of the day off, why don't you?"

"Sir?" The lad looked up in surprise.

"You can finish that in the morning. I've been working you to a frazzle lately. Go down to your favorite pub and have a few drinks. Have some fun. In fact, after that meeting is over and the vote taken I'd like you to take a little vacation. You've hardly had a break since you've been here. Take a week off and go home, see you father. Relax."

Ivan looked stunned. "But sir… there's so much work…"

"I have other people in the department, son," laughed Suvarov. "You are a great help to me here, but you can't do everything and I can't expect you to." He put his hand on Ivan's shoulder. "There is a lot of pressure on me and sometimes I forget how much of that pressure trickles down on other people. Sometimes I forget to thank them, too. You've done a good job for me, Ivan. Your father would be proud. Now go on, get out of here for a while."

Looking very puzzled, Ivan did as he was told. He shut down his terminal and left. Suvarov sighed and turned back towards his own office. No rest for _him_ today!

* * *

"Leave Pandora alone! Leave Pandora alone! _LEAVE PANDORA ALONE!_" The crowd chanted its slogan and Rhada chanted right along with them. The Na'vi supporters were marching in Jubbal again, just like on the first day Rhada had been here. Except this time instead of there being a few hundred, there were thousands, tens of thousands. The street was filled as far as the eye could see in both directions. The feeling of being part of something big and powerful was amazing. She marched next to Manak and her face was painted blue just like his. He said that it would be a perfect disguise against anyone still looking to harm her and he was right: wearing local clothing, no one could ever pick her out of this crowd. And it was either this or stay alone in Manak's cubicle while he marched and she was still too frightened to do that. So she shouted and chanted with the rest.

Ever since the transmission from Pandora the Na'vi movement had gained strength, not just in remote Jubbal, but all around the world. There had been marches and rallies and, unfortunately, some violent incidents. Today's demonstration remained peaceful, however, and eventually Rhada and Manak arrived back at his home. She felt tired, but exhilarated somehow.

"You seem to be embracing our cause quite enthusiastically," said Manak, once they had gotten something to drink and had settled on the cushions. "That's rather gratifying."

Rhada shrugged. "Well, the transmission was eye-opening. All the 'official' news that the RDA dispensed just said that the mining operations had only a minimal impact on the local environment and the natives. What fighting there had been was just the result of a small group of xenophobic zealots among the Na'vi. The message put the lie to that! But…" she hesitated. "But I'm mostly doing this for my brother, Max. The fact that he's staying there proves how much he believes in the Na'vi." Her voice faltered, she still couldn't believe she would probably never see Max again. It hurt so much inside…

"The fact that they have allowed him to stay proves how much the Na'vi believe in him," said Manak. "It is quite an honor. You should be very proud of him."

"Oh, I am, I am, but I hope it doesn't bother you that my feelings are more for Max than the Na'vi."

"It's only to be expected, child. And actually… I'm afraid that I have a similar terrible secret." He quirked up an eyebrow and smiled, hinting that whatever it was couldn't be too terrible.

"Oh?"

"You recall that I told you I was once a college professor? Well, my field was history. Tell me: have you ever heard of Karl Marx?"

"Uh, I've heard the name. Wasn't he some sort of radical philosopher or something?"

"He was an economic historian, girl!" said Manak emphatically. "There were those that took his theories and created radical political movements from them. When those movements became discredited, most of Marx's theories were discredited as well. But the problem wasn't with the theories, the problem was that Marx was just too far ahead of his time." Manak was speaking loudly as if he was lecturing to a room filled with students. "Marx looked at the industrialization taking place around him and thought that this was the capitalist state his theories described. But he was wrong: that was still a century and a half in the future. Do you know what Capital is, Rhada?"

"Uh, money? Wealth…?"

"No! No, no, no!" cried Manak. "Money is just money! Capital is the _means of production_! A carpenter's saw and hammer is his capital, a seamstress' needle and shears are hers. In our day and age, a factory is capital. A computer network is capital. Without capital, no one can work. In Marx's time Capitalism was confused with free-enterprise and healthy competition. So many benefits seemed to flow from those things that few took Marx's warnings seriously. But today, we are seeing the vindication of his theories. Rhada, what must be the ultimate outcome of a completely unfettered Capitalist system?" He looked at her piercingly.

"I… I don't know," she held out her hands helplessly. This was getting very confusing—and a little scary. Manak was like a man possessed.

"Capitalism is predatory, Rhada! Its goal is to eliminate competitors and steal the competitor's markets. The strong will consume the weak. In the end, there will be only one, colossal corporation that will own everything—and everyone! People will have to work for that corporation—on its terms!—or not work at all. The RDA is trying to become that corporation. If it succeeds, a tiny group of unbelievably wealthy men will own all that is worth owning and everyone else will be their slaves. It is inevitable—unless they can be stopped!"

Rhada didn't know what to say. She edged away from Manak.

"And the Na'vi can be the tool we use to bring down the RDA!" continued Manak. "The evil they perpetrated on Pandora is so obvious, so undeniable that it can be the rallying point we need to bring about the revolution." Manak was nodding and almost talking to himself now. "Yes… yes…"

Rhada sat very still until Manak seemed to run out of steam. "Uh…" she said softly, "you said that you would get a phone I could use. I really need to make a call."

"Oh no, that's impossible!" said Manak, his eyes alight. "The RDA knows it is in trouble. It will be on alert, watching for any enemy and it will lash out violently if it finds one. Surely you can see that, my dear? They labeled you an enemy and they sent dagger-wielding assassins to dispatch you! No it would be far too dangerous—for both of us—for you to start calling your friends now!" He moved closer and she tensed. "I can see you are disappointed, but don't worry. You are safe here with me. We have many friends here to protect us and their numbers grow every day. Stay with me and together we will crush the RDA!" He stared straight into her eyes with a terrifying intensity.

Rhada was nearly as frightened as when she'd been face to face with that knife-wielding assassin Manak had spoken of. Manak had seemed like a kindly, if eccentric old man. But she could sense violence behind that façade. She had to be careful.

"Oh, of course. I understand," she said. "I can wait for a better time. And I'd be honored to help you and the cause." Manak smiled and seemed to relax.

"Good, good. I knew I could count on you, Rhada."

"But it has been a long day and you worked so hard," said Rhada, as soothingly as her frayed nerves would permit. "Here, let me fix the dinner for us." She busied herself with the meal—which didn't take long as it was standard RDA rations with a few locally grown greens thrown in. They ate and watched the TV for a while and eventually Manak fell asleep. It really had been a long day. Rhada was exhausted, too. But there was no time for sleep!

Quietly, she got up and moved to the door. Manak stirred slightly when she opened it, but did not wake. She slipped through and closed it behind her. The neighborhood was still almost entirely unknown to her, but she hoped she would not have to go far. The habitation modules in this area had been piled up in a nearly random jumble, but there were several open courtyards where people gathered. It was late, but many people were still out, some were still in blue paint from the day's march. Rhada moved among them looking for…

"Kay! Kayanoush!" The boy spun around at the sound of his name and he skipped over to her with a smile.

"Yes, Miss Rhada?"

"Manak, told me to find you and ask for a phone that I could use. He said you would be able to find one." The boy looked down the street toward Manak's house. "He was very tired after all the marching today," explained Rhada. "I made his dinner and he is sleeping now. But he said that you would help me."

The boy seemed to accept this and said that he would be back in a few minutes with the phone. He was as good as his word and Rhada had to restrain herself from snatching it out of his hand. But he turned it over to her without hesitation. "Thank you very much, Kay! I will give this back to you tomorrow." She leaned forward and kissed him on the top of his head and he shrunk away with a squeal of embarrassment.

Trying not to break into a run, she went back in the direction of Manak's cubicle, but then went right on down the street. She went for perhaps half a kilometer and then found a private spot where she could make her call.

But who to call?

Manak's paranoia was not entirely misplaced. The RDA would be on full alert for subversives and terrorists. Any call from her to Ivan or anyone in the RDA Qatar facility would be sure to send up signal flares. So who? Her parents? She longed to talk to her father, but memories of her abduction were slowly starting to surface. It had been RDA Security personnel who had done this to her. They would almost certainly be monitoring her parents' phone, too…

So who to call? It had to be someone the RDA would never suspect of anything…

_Yes…_

She called up Information.

* * *

"Ivan, I think I've found something," said Charlie Duncan as he slid into the booth across from Ivan. It was nearly midnight.

"Have you found her?" exclaimed Ivan eagerly.

"Calm down," said Charlie. "I said I found _something_, not that I found Rhada! You didn't think it was going to be that easy did you?"

"All right, all right!" snapped Ivan. "So what _have_ you found?"

"I was talking to one of the sergeants on the night shift at the tube station. He said that someone who looked like Rhada was escorted out by two men in civies on the night of the 14th. They flashed Section Nine IDs, so there was no record made of the departure."

"Where were they going?" asked Ivan anxiously. At last! A real lead!

"They took an eastbound train, but that's all he remembers."

"Eastbound!" snarled Ivan. "That doesn't tell me a thing!"

"It tells you that she left here and that she was still alive," responded Charlie. "Two rather important items, in my opinion. And that she was definitely in the hands of Security."

"That part I already knew, but yes: you are right about the other two things. Thanks, Charlie, thanks a lot."

"You're welcome. But I have to admit that even with my brilliant bit of detective work, it doesn't put us much closer to finding her. What are you going to do now?"

"I don't know," admitted Ivan. "Section Nine! Dammit, that's the Black Ops section! I don't know anyone with a foot in there except Suvarov himself." A chill went down his spine: what little he did know was those bastards were utterly ruthless. Had Rhada even survived the night? If Suvarov had hurt her he'd…!"

His phone hummed for attention.

He took it out and looked at the caller ID. He was surprised to see that it was his father. The Old Man almost never called him except in the case of emergency. Hell, maybe Aunt Cecelia had had another heart attack. He really didn't need this right now… But he clicked it on.

"Hello, Da, what's up?"

"Ivan, is everything all right there?"

He almost laughed out loud. Things were most definitely _not_ all right. But instead he said: "Sure, why do you ask?"

"Well, I just had the most unusual phone call from a young lady…"

"_What? Who?"_

"That was the odd thing: she didn't want to give her name. But she said she knows you and asked if I would ask you to meet her at the Jubbal tube station—wherever the hell that is. Ivan, you haven't gotten this girl in trouble have you?"

Oh yeah, had he ever! "Jubbal! That's' in India, I think! You're sure she said jubbal?"

"Yes, she was quite emphatic about that. But Ivan, what…"

"Thanks, Da! I'll call you later!" He clicked off the phone and sprang up from his seat. "It's Rhada!" he said to Charlie.

"And you're going to go get her? Just like that?"

"Of course!"

Charlie shook his head. "Okay, I won't try to make you stop and think this out, 'cause I know you won't. Good luck and keep your fool head down!"

"Thanks Charlie!" Ivan was already walking away, but then he suddenly spun back to face him. "If anything goes wrong…"

"What could possibly go wrong?" asked Charlie, rolling his eyes.

"Yeah, yeah, but if anything does and you hear about it. Or if you don't hear anything from me in a day or two then I want you to call… I want you to call Dr. Pilsen."

"Pilsen?" said Charlie, clearly confused. "The head of the Science Department? Why her?"

"Never mind! Just call her. I have to go, see you later!"

"I sure hope so!"

* * *

Jeremiah Suvarov entered his office suite and immediately saw that Ivan wasn't there. It was well after the normal starting hour in the morning. He sighed. He'd told Ivan to take a break, but not until after the Board meeting tomorrow! Blast the boy! He went into his office and pressed the intercom button for the receptionist. "Illyana? Please call Ivan and get him here, will you?"

"Yes sir, right away." He could hear the amusement in Illyana's voice. He called up the draft of his proposal for the Board and started going over it again. The meeting was going to be difficult, no doubt. They had to put forward the military option without making it look like a military option. They would promise to only make a landing on one of the uninhabited islands, keep contact with the natives to an absolute minimum, and not screw up the environment. At the same time they had to make it look like a quicker and cheaper way to resume the flow of unobtainum than mining the other moons would be. Of course, once this option was approved and the ships dispatched… well, plans could be changed. Get the mines working ASAP but continue the military build-up in secret and after Elshami's little bugs have had time to do their job… The damn Na'vi would be taught a lesson they would never forget. A smile grew on his face.

"Sir?" Illyana was on the intercom.

"Yes?"

"I'm sorry, sir, Ivan Kosegan is not in the Qatar facility."

"What?"

"The record shows he left on a train to New New Delhi around 1 AM this morning. He's not answering his phone. I'm sorry, sir."

"Thank you," said Suvarov woodenly. _Damn! _The fool boy wasn't going to leave this alone! But how had he found out where the girl had been taken? And what if he found out what had happened to her? He had never actually ordered her to be killed, but the man he'd put in charge of the operation certainly knew what was expected. Damnation! He clicked another button on his console.

"Captain? I've got a job for you."

* * *

Rhada huddled in a corner of the tube station and watched the sun come up. She had been there most of the night hoping, praying that Ivan would be on every train that had stopped. Would Ivan's father relay the message? He said that he would. Would Ivan come? He had to! She had no money and no ID, there was no way for her to go anywhere on her own. She was exhausted. She had been awake for a full day and her eyes kept wanting to close on their own. What if he didn't come today? There could easily be something that would delay him. What would she do then? She couldn't go back to Manak's place, but she couldn't stay on the train platform much longer. Sooner or later some security guard was going to come along and if she couldn't produce a ticket he would chase her off. If Ivan showed up then, how was he going to find her? She still had the phone. Maybe she should try calling him? She reminded herself that she'd almost been murdered not two hundred meters away from where she was now. Last resort, the phone would have to be the last resort.

The sun was almost hidden by the clouds of dust and pollutants in the air, but she could tell it was going to be another hot day. Every day was a hot day in Jubbal, she'd been informed, even during the brief rainy season.

In spite of her fears, she had nearly nodded off when the next train slid quietly to a stop. She jerked awake and scanned the people getting off. There was quite a crowd coming from she couldn't guess where for reasons guess why. Nearly all were dressed in local-style clothing except…

"Ivan! Ivan! Over here!"

She was on her feet, running. He caught sight of her and sprinted toward her. An instant later they were in each others' arms, laughing, sobbing, kissing. "Oh, God! Oh, God! Ivan!"

"Rhada! Rhada!" He was clutching her so tightly she could scarcely breathe, but she didn't care. She hugged him as tightly as she could. She put her face against his shoulder and cried tears of joy. He stroked her hair and spoke little nonsense phrases.

Finally, they pulled apart a tiny bit and stared at each other. Ivan was smiling, so was she. "I love you," he said.

"I love you, too." She laughed, but then she glanced around. Most of the people who had gotten off the train were gone. "I could stay here holding you forever, but it's not safe. We need to get away."

"No, you are right." He looked at the departure board that hung overhead. "Good, there's a train back to New New Delhi in just five minutes. We can get connections there." He steered her towards the stairs without letting go and they quickly crossed over to the westbound platform.

"Connections to where?" she asked. She didn't really care: anywhere as long as they were together!

"Smolensk."

"Oh! You're taking me to your home?"

"It's the only place I can think of."

"Will your father take us in? Can he protect us?" She knew that Ivan's father was friends with Suvarov. She'd taken an enormous risk calling him last night, but she'd hoped that just a simple non-incriminating request might get passed along to Ivan. That had worked, but this was something different.

"He's an old curmudgeon and we don't always see eye to eye," said Ivan. "But ties of blood mean everything to him. There's no way he'd turn away me or… my wife."

"_What?" _Rhada nearly fell over.

Before she could say another word, Ivan went to one knee and took her hand. "Rhada Patel, will you marry me?"

"Ivan… I… Oh, yes! _Yes!_" She knelt down beside him and they embraced. They were still there like that when the train came.

Her lack of an ID caused a little commotion with the conductor, but when Ivan flashed his own RDA Security ID and told the man he was escorting her that seemed to do the trick. He bought tickets for both of them with his credit card and they settled into some very soft 1st class seats. There were only a few other people in the 1st class car and they ignored them, cuddling and kissing and exchanging stories until she fell asleep in his arms.

She came awake briefly when they changed trains for Tehran in New New Delhi, but was soon asleep again. Some time later she woke up and smiled when she saw that Ivan was asleep. Married. They were going to get married. Ivan said they would just find a magistrate and have it done as soon as they reached Smolensk, even before they went to see his father. She supposed that they could have a more elaborate ceremony later—assuming that there was any later. She put later out of her mind and snuggled closer to him. He put his arm around her without waking up. _He came for me! He defied everyone and everything to come for me! _If that wasn't love she didn't know what was. She was content.

The landscape sped past as the train streaked along, but then Rhada saw something up ahead and she stiffened. She stared for a moment and then shook Ivan. "Wake up. Ivan, wake up."

""Huh? What?" he mumbled.

"Ivan, you said we were going to Smolensk?"

"Yeah, we still have to change trains again in Tehran, why?"

"I've never been to Smolensk, but I'm pretty sure there aren't any oceans between New New Delhi and it. Look!" Ivan sat up and rubbed his eyes.

"What the hell?" The train was passing over a large body of water on a raised track. They both looked around. They were the only ones in the car. Ivan pressed his face against the window. "We're the only car in the train now!"

"What's happening?" Fear gripped her.

"We're heading back to Qatar," said Ivan grimly.

* * *

Ivan stared as the enormous block of buildings that was the Qatar RDA facility rose out of the Persian Gulf in the distance. The central tower jutted like a spear from the middle of it. He and Rhada had frantically examined every centimeter of their car and there was no way to stop or divert it. The next stop—quite possibly their last stop—was going to be the underground security station and there wasn't a thing they could do about it. Rhada was trembling in his arms and he couldn't think of anything to say to reassure her. They were in big trouble and no lie he could concoct was going to fool her.

He cursed himself for not being more careful. He'd assumed that by leaving in the middle of the night he could get to Rhada before Suvarov was even aware that he was gone. But it never occurred to him that Suvarov could still reach out and grab them once they were on the way to Smolensk. Damn! He should have listened to Charlie.

But why was this happening? Suvarov had to be behind it: nobody else who knew about this would have the power to divert a train from its normal destination. But why was he doing it? Rhada had remembered enough of her ordeal to determine that she had been interrogated with drugs before being dumped in Jubbal. Dumped to be killed! Anger flared in Ivan—the bastard! But the interrogation would have revealed nothing: Rhada was no subversive—or at least she hadn't been before all this started: she had told him about her activities with the pro-Na'vi movement in Jubbal. So Suvarov would have known that Rhada was no threat to the RDA despite the activities of her brother. He could have just fired her if that's what he wanted and been done with it. Why have her killed? And why bring her back to Qatar now? It's not like she had any proof that they could use against him! Bringing them back was probably a bigger risk to him than just letting them go. So why?

The train car slowed and switched to another line that dove toward the level of the sea. Soon a huge wall of concrete loomed in front of them and the train entered a tunnel. Lights flashed by on either side. The car went around a long curve and then straightened out and slowed even more.

"Don't let go of me," whispered Rhada.

"Never."

The car finally hissed to a stop in a brightly lit chamber. A half-dozen RDA security men were waiting for them. Ivan and Rhada went to the door and it opened. Ivan stepped forward as boldly as he could and addressed the officer in charge of the detail: "Captain, what is the meaning of this? I am Security Director Suvarov's private assistant." He flashed his ID in the man's face. "I insist that we be allowed to go on our way."

"Sorry, sir," said the man. "I have orders to escort you and the young lady to the detention center. Will you come quietly?" The other men closed in around them and it was obvious that resistance would be pointless.

Still holding tightly to each other, they were taken down a series of corridors until they came to a large room where more security people were waiting. Ivan stiffened when he saw that Suvarov was there. He stopped and stared at him, Suvarov stared back for a long moment.

"Ivan, I'm very disappointed in you. I was expecting you to show more loyalty."

"Loyalty?" said Ivan angrily. "What could you possibly know about that?"

"You had a duty!" snapped Suvarov in reply. "A duty! To me and to your father and to the RDA."

"What about to Rhada? I had a duty to her, too!" He pulled her closer. "So what happens now? Are you going to kill both of us?"

Suvarov sighed and his shoulders seemed to fall. "No one's going to be killed, Ivan. But you need to cool off and think rationally about your situation. I'm going to give you the time to do that thinking. I'll come back and see you when this meeting with the Board is all over. I was really counting on your help with that, you know."

"This is all about winning, isn't?" said Ivan in sudden understanding. "Everything that's happened! You just can't stand the thought of anyone else beating you! Not me, not Rhada, not Dr. Pilsen and not the Na'vi! You have to win it all! Well, what have you won? _What have you won, Old Man?_" Ivan was shouting now.

Suvaraov shook his head and spoke to the security captain. "Put them in detention. Separate cells." He started to turn away.

"What do you think they'll call it?" shouted Ivan. Suvarov turned back with a puzzled expression.

"This war of yours, what do you think they'll call it? The First Interstellar War? The Na'vi Extermination? _Third Holocaust?_ " A sour expression passed over Suvarov's face. He made an impatient gesture to the captain and headed for the door.

"Maybe they'll just call it: Suvarov's War!" screamed Ivan at his back.

The security men started to drag them away, but his shouting had attracted a small crowd of other people. Ivan thought he saw Charlie's face among them.

* * *

Jeremiah Suvarov sat at his table in the Board Conference Room and waited for things to get started. He was very anxious to get this over with. The confrontation with Ivan yesterday had left him shaken. And he was tired with a weariness that penetrated to his bones. Unfortunately, the meeting was bound to be long and contentious. Due to the fact that the Pandoran issue was now the top news story in the world, this meeting was going to be recorded and it would be available to both the public and the stockholders. They could not just steamroller the opposition and take a quick vote. They would have to at least make it look fair.

But the outcome was not in doubt. The Chairman had pulled all his supporters into line and by all estimates Pilsen was going to be outvoted no matter what was said during the discussion. The RDA was going back to Pandora—in force.

And perhaps the good Doctor realized that: she wasn't here yet. The meeting had been scheduled for ten o'clock and it was three minutes past the hour. Where was she? The other Board members were getting restless. Suvarov glanced at the computer being worked by his stand-in assistant, Brenda McManis. She was capable enough, but he missed having Ivan there. Well, after a few days in a cell, perhaps he would come to his senses…

"I think we can get started," said the Chairman. "I'm informed that Doctor Pilsen is running a few minutes late, but we won't wait. As you all know, we are here to decide what the RDA's future course of action should be regarding the planet Pandora and the resumption of unobtainum shipments. Dr. Pilsen has proposed that we shift our operations to the other moons in the Alpha Centauri system and abandon Pandora completely. The other proposal on the table is to establish a new base in an uninhabited location on Pandora. Director Suvarov has been putting together the details for such an operation and he will explain that to us now. Director Suvarov?"

Suvarov got to his feet and gestured for Brenda to put up the first display. "Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As you directed in our last meeting I have had my department draw up a detailed estimate of the pros and cons of returning to Pandora. As I will explain here today, it is our conclusion that… that…" The door to the Board Room swung open and Suvarov froze.

Dr. Pilsen entered and right behind her was Ivan Kosegan. The Patel girl clung to him like a leech. How the hell had Pilsen arranged this? The science director caught his eye and cocked an eyebrow. Of course: as a director she had what amounted to subpoena power to bring witnesses to a Board meeting. He should have thought to warn the people guarding Ivan not to allow that…

_Damn, what did they do to him?_

Ivan's face was badly bruised and one eye was nearly black. Apparently he had not taken being separated from his girl easily. The girl didn't appear to have any injuries, but with her dark complexion it was hard to tell. Ivan was staring right at him with a burning gaze. _What have you won, Old Man?_

Suvarov dropped his eyes. His hands were shaking.

"Jeremiah?" said the Chairman. "Are you all right?" He looked in confusion between him and the newcomers.

"I…uh…yes…" he said slowly. He looked at Ivan again.

_Suvarov's War…_

"Yes, Mr. Chairman, as I was saying, we have evaluated the options for returning to Pandora and… and I'm afraid that we have reached the conclusion that such an operation would not be feasible."

"What?" cried the Chairman in shock. A round of startled gasps spread through the room. He reached over and shut down Brenda's computer.

"Resuming operations on the surface of Pandora would entail a massive expenditure and the probability of renewed conflict with the natives resulting in significant loss of life on both sides and unacceptable delays in resuming unobtainium shipments. In view of that I have no choice but to endorse Doctor Pilsen's proposal for commencing unobtainium mining elsewhere in the Alpha Centauri A system."

He slumped back into his chair, unmindful of the uproar around him. Something in his pocket poked him slightly. His resignation. It was still there from the last meeting.

He didn't think it would stay in his pocket much longer.

* * *

Ivan looked at Rhada frolicking in the surf and smiled. They were on an exclusive 'clothing optional' beach in Finland. She was wearing one of those popular bathing outfits supposedly patterned on Na'vi clothing. As a result, she wasn't _quite_ naked, but near enough. Ivan tried to imagine her painted blue. Better yet, he imagined himself _painting_ her blue. But in any color she was utterly delicious.

She skipped up the beach and plunked down on the towel next to him and he kissed her. "Having fun?" he asked.

"Oh yes, this is delightful! But Ivan we really need to talk about the guest list for the wedding."

"Right now?"

"We—you have been putting it off all week. And it's not like it is going to be simple! Trying to get all of your family and all of my family together without a war breaking out is not going to be easy."

"Hey, we already stopped one war, compared to that, this should be a snap."

"Do you really think we stopped it? I mean, I know it's been stopped, but did we do it?"

"I don't know," admitted Ivan. "I can't think of any other reason Suvarov would do such a sudden about face. Up until that point he was going full speed ahead." His voice dropped to a whisper. "He was even consulting with a man who had bio-war background."

"My God!" gasped Rhada. She looked very thoughtful.

"That's a secret by the way."

"Well, whatever the reason, Suvarov has resigned and Dr. Pilsen is in charge of the new Pandoran expedition," said Rhada. "Oh and I definitely want to invite her."

"Pilsen? Sure, why not? She did sort of help us out a bit."

"Just a bit! If it weren't for her and Charlie, who knows where we'd be right now?"

"I shudder to think."

"Ivan…?" said Rhada.

"Yeah…?"

"Dr. Pilsen wants me back in her department."

"And you'd be willing to do that?" he asked in surprise. "Go back to the RDA? After what they tried to do to you?"

She sighed and snuggled close. "It wasn't the whole RDA. Just one bad part of it. If you'd asked me a few weeks ago I wouldn't even have considered it—I was still so mad. But in spite of the new 'hands off' policy towards Pandora, we are still going to be studying the place in detail. And Ivan, Max is still there. In the future we might be able to re-open communications with the people down there. I… I'd like to be involved if I can."

"Yeah… yeah, I can see that. Well, it's your decision, girl."

"Ivan…?"

"What?"

"She said she could find a spot for you, too, if you are interested."

"Doing what? I'm no scientist!" _Yeah, but you do need a job._

"She said she could find something for you to do. Think about it won't you?"

"Sure, I'll think about it. Later." He grabbed her and they spent quite some time kissing. _Blue paint… hmm…_

"The wedding is going to be wonderful," sighed Rhada after a while. "I just wish Max could be here."

"If he started right now he could be here in six years," said Ivan. "You willing to wait?"

"No way!" said Rhada and she kissed him again.

**The End**


	3. Chapter 3

The Loophole

by Scott Washburn

_Eywa doesn't take sides—usually – Jake Sulley_

2175 AD

Max Patel and his wife, Cynthia, spread the blanket for their picnic on the grass next to the river and then went back to their boat to get the food. Both kept a careful eye on their two children who were playing hide and seek among the Helicoradian plants. The Na'vi hunters had swept all the dangerous animals out of the area around Heaven's Gate, but you could not be too careful. The planet Pandora was not as lethal as it was often made out to be back on Earth, but it could easily kill the unwary.

"Rhada, please stay in sight!" called Cynthia to their daughter.

"Aw, mom, how can I play hide-and-seek if I stay in sight?" answered back the eleven-year-old.

"Gotcha!" cried nine-year-old Maxie springing out of the foliage.

"See?" said Rhada in exasperation.

"You know the rules," said Cynthia. "Try playing ball instead." The children grumbled, but did as they were told.

"They do know the rules," said Max quietly, setting out the food. "Probably better than we do. They're becoming regular natives."

"Yes," sighed Cynthia. "Max? Did we do the right thing?"

"Which right thing?" he asked, afraid he knew the answer. "Staying here or having them?"

"You know I've never had any regrets about staying. It's been what? Twenty years? I love this place and I'd never want to go back to Earth even if I had the chance. But what about our kids? They'll never have the choice."

"I know. It bothers me sometimes," said Max. He knew it was something that bothered Cynthia even more. She'd waited nearly ten years before even trying to start a family. "But they seem happy here, Cyn, as happy as we are. This is home for them, too."

"It's the only home they'll ever know."

"Most people only ever get to live on one planet, Dear," pointed out Max with a smile. "We're the exceptions."

"Yes, but most people have a planet where they can breathe the air without a mask and where there are more than a few dozen of their kind to mix with. This isn't their natural habitat."

Max sighed. They'd had this conversation before. "There isn't much we can do about it now. They're here and I doubt we can turn them in and get our money back."

"I know, but is this isolation going to continue forever?" asked Cynthia. "The RDA has kept its promise and they are mining the other moons instead of Pandora." She gestured to where huge Polyphemus filled a third of the sky. One of the moons hung in front of it. If you looked closely you could see the sparkle of sunlight off an orbital facility. "I know a total quarantine made sense at first, but when will it end?"

"I don't know," admitted Max. "Jake's still pretty wary about opening up Pandora to anyone who wants to come down."

"Jake isn't human anymore," said Cynthia. "And that's not meant as an insult. But he isn't facing this problem: His children have a normal society to grow up in."

"True. Well, I'll have a talk with him when I get the chance. Come and get it!" he called to the kids. The two scampered over to the blanket and began grabbing food. There was a nice variety of human-safe native fruits and some greenhouse-grown vegetables but the rest of the meal was the same RDA rations they had been living on for decades. The children didn't seem to mind, but there were times when Max would have given his right arm for a cheeseburger.

Eating and drinking while wearing a breath mask was a little tricky, but they were all veterans of Pandora: Just don't inhale when you lift the mask to take a bite. The kids were done quickly and resumed their game, but Max and Cynthia took their time. His hand found hers and squeezed. "Are you happy, love?"

She smiled at him. "Yes. Really. We're living an adventure that most people can only dream of. This place is so beautiful and we're doing good research in spite of the handicaps. We have two wonderful children. It's a full life and I'm content." He stroked her hair. Kissing in a breath mask—or actually kissing without the breath masks—could be done, but they didn't try.

"Hey Dad! Mom!" cried Maxie. They were both instantly alert, but the boy didn't sound worried. He was standing close to the edge of the forest and pointing. "We've got a visitor!" As they watched a Na'vi entered the clearing. It was a male and he was of about average height for one of the natives: well over three meters tall. His blue skin had the usual luminescent freckles and he wore the gear of an Ikran rider. A knife was strapped to his chest. He smiled at Maxie and Rhada and then approached Max and Cynthia. He touched his hand to his chest and bowed slightly.

"Greetings to you, friends," he said in Na'vi. "I am called Ko'gan. May I have words with you?" There was a strange accent to his speech that Max couldn't place.

"Of course," replied Max, returning the gesture. "You are welcome here."

"Many thanks, you are kind. But may I ask: Are you Max Patel?"

Max blinked in surprise. He had many friends among the Na'vi, but this was not one of them. He was sure he'd never seen him before. "Yes, I am. Do I know you?"

The Na'vi smiled broadly. "We have never met. But my mate is yonder with our ikrans. She knows you and desires that you come and meet with her."

Max looked at Cynthia. She looked back, just as puzzled as he. But he couldn't see any harm in it. If this Na'vi wished them harm there was little they could do about it. "All right, I'll come. Is it far? I don't want to leave my family for long."

"It is not far. Please follow me."

After a short debate with the kids who wanted to come, too, he set off through the forest after Ko'gan. This was really odd and there was something odd about the Na'vi as well. He couldn't put his finger on it though… But he was good as his word and shortly they came to another clearing. A pair of Ikrans stood silently with a Na'vi woman. She smiled when she saw them. "This is my mate," said Ko'gan.

"I am pleased to meet you," said Max, bowing. Did he know her as Ko'gan had said? She _did_ look familiar, but he couldn't remember where he had seen her before. She stepped closer and her smile grew even bigger. But her eyes were glistening with tears. One rolled down her cheek. What…?

"Hello, Max," she said in perfect English. "Hello, Big Brother."

"_Rhada!"_

* * *

Rhada Patel Kosegan fell to her knees and gathered in her brother. She had to force herself not hug him too tightly or her avatar's strength would crush his ribs. "Max! Max! Oh, God, I've missed you so much!" The tears streamed down her cheeks as she planted kisses on his head.

"Little Sister," sobbed Max. "But… but you're not little anymore!" He laughed through his tears and stepped back to look at her.

"No, I'm all grown up now," she laughed in return. "Up and up and up!"

"Oh, this is wonderful!" cried Max. "But what are you doing here? How _can_ you be here?"

"It's a long story," said Rhada.

"A very long story," said Ko'gan in English. "By the way, I'm Ivan, Rhada's husband."

"Of course!" cried Max. "I knew there was something familiar about you! Now I recognize you from the video messages Rhada has sent!"

"I was a lot shorter in those," said Ivan. "Less blue, too."

"Avatar drivers!" said Max. "Never in my wildest dreams did I expect this! But… But… I got a message from you just last month—from Earth!"

"Recorded before we left, along with all those others," said Rhada guiltily. "It's been almost seven years since we left Earth. They even aged us digitally in our messages and put in some responses to things in yours—or at least that was the plan. I guess it must have fooled you."

"Completely! But why all the secrecy?"

"Our being here is top secret," said Rhada. "Very few people know about this project."

"Project?" asked Max.

"We're here to try and re-establish relations with the Na'vi—and the humans here, Max" said Ivan. "We wanted to be as discrete as possible in case things don't work out."

"Yes, I can see that. I mean technically, your being here is a violation of the agreement."

"Actually, no it isn't," said Rhada with a grin. "The agreement was for no more _humans_ to land on Pandora." She spread her arms. "Quite clearly we aren't human."

"No, but your human bodies must be around here somewhere. Did you set up a secret base with the links?"

"No, in fact our human bodies are still on the station in orbit…"

"What?" exclaimed Max. "You can maintain the link over that distance?"

"Yes, there have been some improvements made," nodded Rhada. "But the lightspeed delay is a problem. The station is in geosynchronous orbit above here. There's a two-tenths of a second delay due to the distance. You might have noticed that our response time is a little slow."

"Uh, yeah, actually I did. I was wondering if there was some problem with your link," said Max.

"No, just blame it on Einstein and that darn speed limit of his," said Ivan.

Max looked over at the Ikrans. "But isn't it dangerous trying to ride them with poor reaction time. Or… wait… Are they…?"

"Yes, they're clones, too," said Rhada. "Their movements are completely controlled by a computer in their skull. We can access them through an interface in our queues. We wouldn't dare try and ride a real one. And we can't let these mix with real ones: they won't defend themselves."

"This is too much," said Max seeming dazed. Rhada looked at her brother and inwardly frowned. He looked so old! She knew that time had passed, but her mental image of her brother was of a much younger man. _He's fifty-five, girl, forty-nine if you subtract his time in cryo getting here._

"I'm not complaining," said Max, "but why did they chose you to come here? I mean, you're a geologist and Ivan's an administrator—or was that all a cover, too?"

"No, or not at first anyway," said Rhada. I _am_ a geologist, after all. But no, we were chosen because we were the only ones remotely qualified for the mission who had a close relative here. Getting you guys to trust us is going to be a huge part of making this work."

"Yeah, I can see that but why did…?"

"Dad?"

All three of them looked up to see a young boy emerge from the forest. He was followed by an older girl and then a grown woman. Rhada choked off an exclamation of joy. She wanted nothing more than to take her niece and nephew and hug them for two or three hours. _God, look how big they are! _" Instead she whispered to Max: "Don't tell them who we are! Not yet!" Max looked puzzled for an instant but then he nodded and moved toward the others.

"Hey guys, this is an old friend of mine from way back. I haven't seen her in ages. This is… uh…" Max looked back it her in panic.

"I am Chalee," said Rhada in Na'vi, rising up and walking toward them. "It is indeed an honor to meet the family of my old friend at last."

The kids just looked up at her in surprise. Cynthia looked to Max with a scowl on her face. Max made a little _wait 'til later_ gesture and she nodded warily. "Uh, we were having a picnic," she said. "Would you like to join us?"

"We would be honored," said Ivan.

"Can you give us a ride on your Ikran?" said young Max. His Na'vi was nearly perfect. Completely inappropriate in tone for a child addressing an adult, but still technically correct.

"Maxie!" said Cynthia. "Don't be rude!"

"Actually, that might be possible," said Rhada. "But only with your parent's consent, young Max." her brother and sister-in-law looked horrified but the kids screeched in excitement.

"Hey, how'd you know my name?" asked her nephew after they settled down.

"Your father told me."

"Oh. Can we ride now?" The adults exchanged looks and they all realized there would be no peace until the kids were given their rides. Cynthia worried about the safety, but they assured her there was nothing to worry about. Rhada took Maxie and Ivan took young Rhada. _Keeping track of our names is going to get complicated!_ The Ikrans were completely docile as they approached and made no notice of them as they mounted. Only when the two avatars connected their queues did they seem to come to life. Then they screeched and beat their wings like any other Ikran. Rhada put her arm around Maxie and gave the mental command that sent her Ikran skyward. Maxie shrieked in delight and clutched her arm. Rhada laughed and hugged him. Ivan and young Rhada were right behind. The two children waved at each other and shouted. Then Rhada put them into a dive and buzzed Max and Cynthia, to the even greater delight of the children. The ride lasted less than five minutes, but the kids were talking about it for the next hour as the grownups quietly sat around the picnic blanket.

"Max, what is going on?" demanded Cynthia once the children were occupied and out of eavesdropping distance. Rhada nodded her head to Max. Trying to keep it secret from Cynthia clearly would not work.

"Dear," said Max, "I'd like you to meet my sister Rhada and her husband Ivan."

"Max! What are you… Oh_… Oh my_!" gasped Cynthia, her eyes growing incredibly wide. Rhada smiled and held out her arms. Her sister-in-law moved into her embrace and hugged her warmly.

"It's so good to meet you at last," said Rhada.

"Yes!" said Cynthia. "I was so hoping we would get the chance to meet some day. Of course I never imagined it would happen quite like this!" She looked toward the children and then back at Max. "Aren't we going to tell them?"

"Not yet," said Rhada. "The situation is a bit complicated." She quickly explained their mission to Cynthia. The woman nodded.

"Yes, no point in tempting young tongues! But this is wonderful! We'll have full contact again? Be able to come and go?

"That is the hope, "said Ivan. "Working out the details is going to take time, I'm sure."

"What are you going to do next?"

"Well, we would like to arrange a private meeting with the local Na'vi leader. We were assuming that is still Jake Sully?"

Yes, Jake is still the leader of the Omaticaya," said Max. "It's a lifetime position and Jake hasn't managed to get himself killed yet. Let me get the com link and see if I can contact him."

* * *

Jake banked his ikran and dove in pursuit of Neytiri. His mate looked over her shoulder and laughed as she made a tight turn around a tree trunk and momentarily eluded him. He was quickly back on the track and the pair darted over and under branches as they played their game. But finally he noticed his ikran was starting to tire and he signaled Neytiri. She nodded and they slowly climbed above the trees and let the ikrans soar on the thermals and rest.

"That was fun," said Jake.

"Yes, it has been too long since we did that," agreed Neytiri. Jake stared at her. Had there been a tone of reproach in her voice? He sighed. Being the leader of the Omaticaya and the de facto leader of all the Na'vi seemed to take up an incredible amount of his time. Being a father was no easy thing, either. Had he been neglecting his best friend and lover? The feelings he had for Neytiri had not weakened over the years, but the day-to-day obligations seemed to crowd in more all the time. Neytiri said nothing more and seemed content, so Jake let it go. They flew in silence for a bit and then Neytiri pointed. In the distance they saw a flash of red against the rolling green of the tree tops. It was the Toruk.

"Hey there, old fellow," laughed Jake, "Been a while since we've seen you around here!" It had been several years since the huge flying predator had been reported in these regions and Jake had wondered if he had moved on or finally died of old age or some mishap. But he was glad to see him now. He was a good distance away and they made no move to get closer. A frightening encounter a year after the battle had taught him the beast could not be approached lightly despite the bond that had once existed. Even from this distance, Jake's ikran growled uneasily. "Jealous, girl?" asked Jake, stroking his mount. "No need to be. He's not really my type."

As he watched the Toruk wheel and bank gracefully, his thoughts went back to that day, twenty years ago, when the two of them had led the Na'vi into battle. It had been terrifying and exhilarating and glorious. But it had been tragic, too. So many good people died that day and so many of them didn't have to. He'd been such a fool. Remembering back now he could think of a dozen different things he might have done to win the battle without all the casualties—even without Eywa's help. Instead, he'd ordered two frontal assaults, one in the air and one on the ground. Mad charges straight into Quaritch's guns. Hell, even a corporal should have been able to do better than that!

_Trudy. Trudy forgive me, I wasted you._

That was the worst. Trudy and her helicopter could have been his ace in the hole. Instead of just turning her loose to do whatever she could, he should have saved her until just the right moment. Wait until the first wave of Banshees had the enemy's attention and then slip Trudy right into their formation. In the Flux the IFF beacons were messed up and they never would have spotted her. She could have slid in behind the shuttle and cut loose right through the open cargo door. With any luck the mining explosives stored there would have gone off. The blast and flying debris would have taken out Quaritch and half the gunships. After that it would have just been a matter of mopping up… If he'd just been a little smarter. He still had nightmares about it.

"Jake? Jake are you all right?" asked Neytiri.

"What? Oh sure, just thinking."

"From your face, I don't think the thoughts were pleasant. Is something wrong?"

"No, no, just some old ghosts passing by. Come on, let's head for home." They banked their ikrans and headed towards Hometree at an easy pace. By chance—if it was chance—their path took them over the spot where the old Hometree had once stood. The forest had mostly covered the scars after twenty years, but a huge moss-covered mound showed where the main trunk had fallen. A few rusted pieces of mining equipment could be seen, too. Another generation and no trace would remain—except for the memories.

As they closed on their home, Jake's communicator came to life. He cursed and wished he'd left the damned thing behind. "Jake? Jake, come in please." It was Norm.

"Hi Norm. We're on our way home. What's up?"

"Can you swing by Heaven's Gate? Max wants to see you."

"What about?"

"He wouldn't say, but he said it was really urgent. I'm already on my way there myself."

Jake sighed. "Okay, I'll see you there." He looked at Neytiri. "You want to come?"

"I really should get back to the children…"

"Your mother has them, they'll be fine. Please?"

She smiled. "Very well."

They turned the ikrans away from their roost and they clearly weren't happy about it. Fortunately, it wasn't all that far. Their new home tree was actually closer to the old human base than the original had been.

"I hope there is nothing seriously wrong," said Neytiri.

"Yeah, they were having all sorts of problems with their life support equipment a few months ago," replied Jake. "It's all wearing out. Hope it's not a major breakdown." This was yet another of Jake's many worries: The humans who had remained behind on Pandora.

There had only been twenty-three of them. Nine had been avatar drivers and two of them, along with Norm had followed Jake's path through Eywa and were now fully Na'vi. The others had been unwilling to do the same since it was definitely a one-way trip. They still drove their avatars, but less frequently to save wear and tear on their precious link capsules. One of the other humans, Sam Watkins, had been horrible mauled by a viperwolf about ten years ago and there had been no choice but to evacuate him up to the orbital station for proper medical treatment. He had never returned. Of the nineteen that remained, sixteen of them had either been married or got married and between them had produced fourteen children (so far). So, thirty-three humans all told were still on Pandora, living in the remains of a base intended for over two thousand. There were plenty of basic supplies, but the infrastructure was slowly crumbling. Most of the humans had been scientists with limited mechanical skills. They could do the basic maintenance but more complex problems were often beyond them. Year by year they had been forced to shut down more and more of the base, cannibalizing some sections in order to keep other sections running. They had been able to trade some of their stored unobtainium for critical equipment from the humans in orbit, but too often it was useless without skilled technicians to install and maintain it. People would have to be brought down to do that and Jake wasn't willing to permit it. He feared that if he allowed any foothold at all it would open the door for the RDA to worm its way back in.

He told himself it wasn't an irrational fear. For the first ten years after the revolt, they had been on constant guard for an armed invasion. They had blown up or otherwise destroyed all the mining equipment and its supporting infrastructure just to remove any temptation for the RDA to try and grab it in a surprise attack. Much of the remaining base had been wired with demolition charges for years even after it seemed like the RDA had given up on coming back. They had only been able to relax their vigil in the last few years as the RDA's mining operations on the other moons went into full production.

But Max and Norm had warned him repeatedly that the tiny population at Heaven's Gate wasn't really viable if it remained in isolation permanently. He wasn't sure what to do about it. He considered his primary responsibility to be to the Na'vi, but he had responsibilities to the humans, too.

The base came into view. Much of it was just overgrown rubble, but the main living quarters were still there. A smaller perimeter fence enclosed it and the avatar compound and the greenhouses. They had built an ikran 'rookery' for visiting Na'vi by the avatar compound and they guided their mounts toward it. Jake noted that two ikrans were already there.

As they landed, Jake's mount became agitated and screeched at the other Ikrans. Neytiri's did so as well. It wasn't unusual for the banshees to fight when they didn't know each other, but this seemed odd, particularly when the two strange ikrans didn't react at all. Max was there and he shouted for them to move their mounts to the far end of the rookery. Puzzled, they did so and their beasts settled down. He and Neytiri fed them a few scraps of meat and then went to see Max. As they did so, Norm came riding up on a horse. Norm had never even tried to acquire a banshee for himself, but he was a very good rider on the Pandoran six-legged horses and on the path they had built between here and Hometree, he could make good time. The three of them walked over to where Max was waiting. Jake was interested to see that a pair of Na'vi were now with him.

"Hi Max, what's up?" he asked.

"Jake, Norm, Neytiri, I'd like to introduce Ko'gan and Chalee," said Max in Na'vi, indicating the two strangers. The pair bowed and the male said:

"May Eywa bless the hour of our meeting. It is indeed an honor to meet you." There was an accent in his voice that Jake couldn't quite place. In the aftermath of the battle Jake had met with a great many Na'vi from all over Pandora, but he couldn't remember an accent like this one. The woman made a greeting of her own and she, too had an accent although it was different from the male's.

Jake made the proper responses and then looked to Max, who said: "I've set up a spot where we can talk in private." A strange smile grew on his face. "This might take a while." He led them to a spot where food and drink had been prepared and they sat in a circle facing each other.

"So what's this all about?" demanded Norm.

"Jake," said Max, "don't get into a panic or anything, but Ko-gan and Chalee aren't from around here."

"Well, I can tell they aren't locals," said Jake a bit testily. "So where are they…?"

It hit him. He peered closely at the two strangers. There was something about the eyes… "Eywa! They're avatars?" Despite Max's warning, a jolt of fear went through him.

"Yes they are," said Max. "And they are friends. More than friends. Jake, Chalee is really my sister, Rhada. Ko'gan is her husband."

Jake rocked back, stunned.

"Well, I'll be damned," he said in English.

* * *

Ivan Kosegan watched as Jake Sully and his mate and Norm Spellman absorbed the news. He sure hoped that they wouldn't react violently because with the time-lag in his responses, he would stand no chance at all in a fight. But while they looked surprised and a bit wary, none of them reached for weapons.

"Jake," said Rhada, "my brother Max has only the highest praise for you. I want to assure you that we are here only to talk. We are not a threat to you or the Na'vi." She reached over to Max and he took his tiny hand in her enormous one.

"It really is my sister," added Max. He smiled up at her. "I'd know her anywhere."

"So… so what do you want here?" asked Jake.

Ivan explained again their desire to negotiate a normalization of relations. "We are hoping that it can eventually be like the relationship between countries on Earth," he continued. "Diplomatic relations, embassies, cultural exchanges, trade and the like. Pandora would be like a sovereign nation with complete control of its territory and borders."

"Why?" demanded Jake. "The RDA is still in charge of things up there, isn't it? Where's the profit in normalized relations?"

"The RDA isn't _entirely_ about profit," said Rhada. "I suppose I shouldn't expect you to believe that; I saw the transmission you sent to Earth after the battle and I still remember how stunned I was by what the Corporation had done here. But things have changed in the last twenty years. A whole new batch of people are in charge and they've learned some lessons. The unobtainium mining up on the other moons is working out and no one is talking about resuming it on Pandora. But there is so much to be learned down here. And yes, some of that might eventually be turned to profit, but you and the Na'vi stand to gain from the contact, too."

"How?" asked Jake suspiciously. "What can you offer us that won't just screw up what we already have?"

"Come on, Jake," said Max, "You can't pretend that the Na'vi haven't learned _anything_ from us poor, dumb Sky People. Plus there are the medicines we've given them. Hell, they even love most of our music!"

"There's a cloud around every silver-lining, Max," said Norm. "Yeah, they love our music—maybe too much. These days after the evening meal instead of singing like they used to, they sit around listening to Mozart or Horner on the player you gave them. They're even adapting Earth music for their own: have you seen Hsa'Ti do his Elvis impression? In a few generations real Na'vi music could disappear. And that's hardly the worst possibility. Thanks to our medicines infant mortality among the Omaticaya is down 75%. I can hardly complain since my own first-born wouldn't have survived without them, but are we going to see a population explosion among the Na'vi? Five hundred years from now Pandora could be as crowded as Earth."

"We'd have to be very careful about what things we introduce," admitted Max. "But it's not like the Na'vi are locked in cryo: they are advancing technologically on their own. Some of the archeological digs that were done when humans first got here show that as recently as a thousand years ago the Na'vi didn't have bows or ride ikrans. And it's not like you can turn back the clock and make the Na'vi forget that we even exist." He looked at Jake's mate. "Neytiri, do you wish that the humans had never come to Pandora?"

"Then I never would have met Jake or you others," said the Na'vi woman. "I would not have the children that I do. The Sky People did much harm to me, but much good has come from it, too." She took Jake's hand. "I would not wish that all to be gone."

"I'm going to have to think about this…" said Jake, shaking his head.

"Of course!" said Ivan. "There is no hurry. We are assuming that you will have to consult with the other clans and that will take time. Our estimates were that it could take a year or more for the negotiations."

"We have given you a lot to think about today," said Rhada. "And we have been driving our avatars for longer than is good. Can we leave them here where it is safe while we disconnect and eat and sleep? Perhaps we can meet again tomorrow or whenever would be convenient?" The others quickly agreed to that and they were led to a dormitory-like structure where the avatars slept. Five of them were already there. He and Rhada were shown to two empty bunks. Rhada gave Max a hug and they all said good bye until tomorrow. With a groan of relief Ivan lay down and closed his eyes…

…and opened his human eyes inside the link capsule. After a moment's disorientation he pushed open the lid and looked over to where Rhada was already emerging from hers. She always recovered faster for some reason.

"You okay?" she asked.

"Yeah, just tired." Even though their human bodies weren't doing anything while they were driving their avatars, it wasn't the same as sleeping. And the last weeks had been rough. They had arrived in the Alpha Centauri A system almost a year earlier. They had spent three months getting used to their avatars and brushing up on language and customs. Then another two months had gone by while they learned to fly their ikrans. Eventually, they had been allowed to go down to the planet. A remotely controlled shuttle had dropped them out at a thousand meters and they flew down from there. After a period of hours or days, they would be picked up the same way. Another month went by while they familiarized themselves with the environment. At last, their supervisor thought they were ready to make contact with the Na'vi. At first this had just been just fleeting encounters with hunting parties or other small group far away from the old human base. Later, they had spent the night at remote villages. The whole point was to see if they could pass themselves off as natives. For the most part they had, although Ivan suspected that there were a number of clans who would always refer to them as _those weirdoes who visited us last year_. Only once had they been forced to beat a hasty retreat after committing some offense (he still wasn't sure what they had done wrong).

Finally, the time had come to make contact with Max. The people on the station had been able to tap into the communications network being used on Pandora and had been tracking Max's movements. Twice they had almost managed to intercept him away from Heaven's Gate, but missed him both times. At last the word came that he'd contacted Jake Sulley about conditions where he was planning a family picnic. He and Rhada had been dropped off a week early just in case and they had been forced to camp out and sleep in shifts since they didn't dare leave both avatars asleep at the same time. This was the first time they had both been out of their link capsules together in eight days.

Privately, Ivan thought that all the training and secrecy had been overkill. After all, they had managed to contact Max without a hitch. They wouldn't have to try to pass themselves off as real Na'vi anymore so what was the point? Still, he supposed it might be important later on in convincing them that the humans could be good house guests. There was also Rhada's suspicion that if things didn't work out with Jake Sulley, they might be ordered to try to establish relations with some other clan elsewhere on Pandora. Ivan wondered if she was right—and what they'd do if she was right.

Groaning, he hauled himself out of the capsule. Rhada was already walking around talking excitedly with Amos Henderson, their supervisor. Being reunited with Max had totally pumped her up. He was really glad for her. "Hey, girl," he said. "Time for a shower and some real sack time."

"Not until I've debriefed you, Ivan," said Henderson.

"Oh crap, can't it wait?"

"No, it cannot. Now come on."

* * *

Norm Spellman and his mate, Lanuma, climbed up onto the platform where Jake and Neytiri were waiting for them. Lanuma moved a little awkwardly because she was in her last months of pregnancy and Norm helped her. He was still amazed that he was about to become a father again. Their first two had come early and they were almost adults now. They had assumed that no more would be coming…

"How are you doing, Lanuma?" asked Neytiri. They had become close friends over the years and Norm was glad of that.

"I am fine," answered Lanuma. "He is moving more and more now. I think he will be a strong one."

"You're sure it's a boy?" asked Jake.

Lanuma shrugged. "Of course, why would you doubt it?"

"Jake doubted me both times," laughed Neytiri. "Apparently human women can't tell."

"Really?" said Lanuma in surprise. She looked sharply at Norm. "You never told me that."

Norm put on a look of mock astonishment. "You mean they can't?" Jake snorted and threw a stick at him. They all laughed.

Evening was coming on and the forest was slowly lighting up with bioluminescence. From near the top of Hometree the effect was amazing. Norm never grew tired of it. He was truly glad he had taken the chance and become a Na'vi. Thinking back now it seemed like an enormous risk to take. No one really knew if Eywa would be willing to perform a second 'miracle', but she had. He reached out and stroked Lanuma's arm.

"So," said Jake, "what are we going to do about this?"

"It was inevitable that we would face this at some point, Jake," said Norm. "I'm just glad it's coming like this instead of at the point of an autocannon. Rhada and Ivan seem sincere and they are certainly bending over backwards to avoid causing a commotion."

"Neither one bent over backwards," said Neytiri, frowning. "Why would they do that?"

"Just a human expression, love. It means they are making a lot of effort."

"Ah, I see. I like this Rhada and I have never seen Max so happy."

"Yeah," said Jake. "I don't think I have any doubts about the two of them. But even if they believe every word they say, it doesn't mean the Corporation isn't lying to them, too. And even if it's all true, right up to the top of RDA, what will it mean to the Na'vi and Pandora if we open up our world to them?"

"I don't know," admitted Norm. "Any time two radically different cultures collide there is bound to be friction and a lot of problems."

"You have not caused many problems, my love," said Lanuma. "Or at least no more than any other male." Both the women laughed.

"Because Norm and I wanted to become part of the Na'vi," said Jake. "If more humans are allowed to come, they won't be thinking like that."

"What _will_ they be thinking?" asked Neytiri. "Why do they want to come here? They cannot breath the air, much of our food is poison to them. They are getting the gray rocks from elsewhere. Why would they travel so far to come to our world?"

"Good question," said Jake.

"Yes it is," said Norm. "But one thing we have to consider is who _can_ come here? It's not like people on Earth can just hop on the train and go to Pandora. It's incredibly expensive and time-consuming to get here. No ordinary people could ever do it. It's not like we need to worry about a wave of homesteaders or tourists showing up!"

"Yeah, I guess that's true. So who would be able to come? RDA personnel and scientists. But what would either type want on Pandora? I mean with all the work that you and Max and the others have been doing for the last twenty years do they really need a bunch more scientists here?"

Norm laughed. "Jake, you are a mighty warrior and a wise leader and great guy, but you don't know shit about science! Despite all our work here we haven't even scratched the surface. Hell, they are still discovering new species in _Earth's_ crippled environment! Pandora is vastly richer and more varied. We've only made the sketchiest aerial surveys of the other continents and larger islands and we know nothing—nothing!—about the oceans. Jake if we had a thousand researchers here there's enough to keep us busy for a dozen lifetimes!"

"Okay… I never claimed to be smart," said Jake."So, a bunch of new scientists would want to come here. I'm not sure I see the payoff for the RDA."

"Jake, basic research always pays off in the long-run. _Always_. There's just no telling what might be discovered here that could lead to a big payoff back on Earth."

"So perhaps we could allow some new scientists to come," said Neytiri. "Start out with a few and see what happens. If there is no trouble then we could allow more with time. At least this would help Max and the other humans."

"Yeah, that's certainly true," said Norm. "As part of any agreement we'd have to insist on a complete refurbishment of the facilities here and guarantees for the humans already here. I know Max and Cynthia and the other parents are worried about educational opportunities for their kids. Home schooling is fine, but if they want a university education they'll have to go to Earth for that." Silently Norm wondered about his own children. Of necessity they were growing up as Na'vi, but what about their 'human' heritage? It was a terribly complex issue.

"We're going to need a _lot_ of guarantees," growled Jake. "Like no military forces, restrictions on where they can go. All sorts of stuff I probably haven't even thought of."

"Well, that's what the negotiations are all about," said Norm. "Fortunately, it doesn't look like they are expecting to settle this all right away."

"Good! 'Cause anything they propose is still going to have to be approved by the other Na'vi. We can't make decisions like that on our own."

"In matters concerning the Sky People the other clans will follow your lead, my love," said Neytiri.

"Maybe so, but I'm still going to insist that they have a say in this. And if the majority are against it, then there's no way I'm going to approve, either!"

"Well, that's still a ways down the road," said Norm. "We've got a lot of negotiating to do with Ivan and Rhada first."

"Yes, and we can't do that tonight," said Lanuma. "I'm tired and it is time for me to go to sleep!"

No one could argue with that.

* * *

Max cycled through the airlock into the living quarters and made his way down the hall towards his own quarters. He unconsciously rubbed at the callous that had formed on his chin after years of wearing a breath mask. He opened the door and went inside. The apartment occupied by his family had originally been three small apartments. With the huge base at their disposal, the inhabitants had almost all the space they could want, even allowing for the sections they'd had to seal off and abandon. "Hi, everyone, I'm home!" he called.

Maxie and Rhada briefly appeared from their rooms to give him a hug but then disappeared again, back to whatever they had been doing. He went into the kitchen and found Cynthia preparing dinner. Usually they took turns making the meals, but with him tied up in the negotiations, Cynthia had taken over that chore for the last few weeks. He came up behind her and gave her a squeeze. "Hi."

"Hi, yourself. How'd it go today?"

"Oh pretty well, I guess. Little by little we are making progress."

"How much longer do you think this is going to take?"

"It wouldn't surprise me if it took another few weeks. Jake is being incredibly particular about the wording of the terms."

"Particular! Paranoid, you mean!" snorted Cynthia, mashing a potato with extra vigor.

"Don't be so hard on him, love. This really is very important. If we make a mistake now, we could end up really regretting it down the road. And it's been twenty years, what difference does a few extra weeks make?"

She stepped back from the massacred potato and sighed. "I know, and I keep telling myself to be patient, but I'm so eager for this to happen. And I don't even know why for sure! It's not like I'm going to hop on the next ship and go back to Earth!"

"Well, I'm glad to hear that! I'd really miss you!" She jabbed him with the end of the potato-masher.

"What do you think the final agreement is going to look like?" she asked, resuming her mashing.

"I think the way Ivan described it at the start is a pretty good bet: Pandora will be a sovereign nation with all the rights that goes along with that. Heaven's Gate will be like a foreign compound inside that nation."

"You mean like an embassy?"

"Well, no, and that's a key point. An embassy is technically the territory of the nation it belongs to. Jake isn't willing to give away even one square meter of Pandora. So the compound will be Pandoran territory and any human presence will be subject to eviction after a notice is given. It will be kind of like the regional headquarters of some big corporation in a foreign country. The corporation can own the facilities, but they will still be subject to Pandoran laws and law enforcement."

"Does Pandora even have any laws—or law enforcement?"

"Well yeah, you've put your finger on one of the big sticking points: Pandora doesn't have any sort of central government and even local government is based on traditions and family ties rather than written laws. Trying to mesh that into an ironclad treaty with the humans isn't going to be easy. Just basic things like defining citizenship aren't that simple. I mean obviously any native Na'vi would be considered a citizen. But what about people like us? Are we citizens or just legally resident aliens? If we are citizens then that means there must be a naturalization process which means that theoretically other humans coming here could become citizens, too. And then there are the avatar drivers, how do they fit into it? It's important because you could also have people like Rhada and Ivan to account for. And then there's the whole issue of property rights. The Na'vi don't really even have the concept of owning the land except in a collective sense. So how do we… "

"Okay, I take it back," said Cynthia.

"Take what back?"

"All the frustration and impatience I've been building up. Somehow I think my mental image of this treaty was a one-page document that basically said: 'We the undersigned agree to be nice to each other.' "

Max laughed. "If only it could be that simple! You know, we've got twenty scientists here, what we really need are a couple of lawyers."

"No luck there. And I doubt Jake is going to sign anything drawn up by an RDA lawyer!"

"That's for sure. But I'm tired of talking about it. What's for dinner?"

"Mashed potatoes. _Really_ mashed potatoes."

They had a nice family dinner and then Max had to go and help Georg Eichleman clean out the filters in the water recycling unit. Everyone, even the older children, had a daily list of chores to help keep the base running. And they could not be skipped even during important diplomatic discussions. Later, he came home, showered and went to bed. It was still light outside, but that was normal: Pandora did not have anything resembling an Earthly day-night cycle. Between direct sunlight and reflected light from Polyphemus it rarely ever got really dark. Over the years you could get used to it and Max had no trouble falling asleep.

In the morning he was puttering around after breakfast and getting ready for the day's negotiations when he got a call from Jake. "Morning, Jake, we still on for today?" he asked.

"No, I'm afraid we'll have to cancel today's meeting."

"Why? Something happen?"

"We've got some special visitors and I think you are going to like this. We'll be performing the Tireafya'o tonight—and you're invited."

"What? Really?" gasped Max. "They agreed to let me come? That's' fantastic! Tonight you said? Can I bring my equipment? I need to get ready! When do we leave?"

"Hey, simmer down!" laughed Jake "There's plenty of time. As for equipment, non-invasive stuff only. No needles or probes or stick-on patches. You can watch from the edge of the Well of Souls."

"Okay, that's fine. Uh… can I bring Rhada and Ivan?"

"Sure, why not? They'd probably find it interesting."

"Great! I'll see you later!"

* * *

Rhada followed Max toward what the Na'vi called the Well of Souls. They had all flown out from Heaven's Gate together on one of the utility helicopters. She looked up in astonishment at the bizarre rock arches that soared overhead. She'd seen some pictures of this, of course, but they could not begin to convey the reality of it. "How did these form?" she asked. Nothing in her experience as a geologist could account for them.

"We've never had the chance to really study them," said Max. "They're full of unobtainium, just like the floating mountains, so we speculate that somehow a mix of that and some denser rock got twisted into these shapes by the magnetic field while this area was still molten and then after that the softer rocks got eroded away leaving the arches. But that's just a guess. Maybe once we get things settled you could make a study of them."

"I'd like that." She looked up at the mountains floating overhead. It was like being in some sort of bizarre fantasy painting. "When you said you had something special to show us, you weren't kidding!"

Max laughed. "Those? Those are just the preview, Sis. The main event is still to come." They had reached the edge of the well and he indicated a beautiful white tree at the bottom of it. A huge crowd of Na'vi were assembling all around it.

"So what is this we are going to see?" asked Rhada. "The quick explanation you gave earlier was a bit… confusing."

"It's called Tireafya'o, The Path of the Spirit," said Max. Rhada looked closely at her brother. He seemed to be extremely nervous—or maybe just excited. "I've wanted to see this for twenty years, but it doesn't happen often and outsiders have never been allowed to witness it before. This is an incredible honor." He started pulling equipment out of a large bag he was carrying.

"But what's going to happen?" asked Ivan.

"It's something I've heard stories about," said Max. "If it weren't for what happened to Jake and Norm and Doris and Hans, I would have just written it off as a legend."

"Why? What happened to Jake and the others?" asked Rhada.

Max looked at them with a strange expression. "You mean you don't know? I had sent in some reports about it. Years and years ago." He shook his head. "I guess they didn't believe me. Probably thought I'd gone crazy out here."

"Know what? You aren't making sense, Big Brother."

"Aren't you curious why you've never seen Jake's or Norm's human bodies? Never anything but their avatars?"

"I just assumed it was because they are more comfortable that way. I mean, I know Jake's human body is paralyzed."

"Rhada, Jake and Norm and the other two don't _have_ human bodies anymore."

"What?' said Rhada faintly. "What do you mean?"

"I mean that their minds were transferred to their avatars—completely transferred. They are permanently Na'vi now—have been for twenty years."

"But that isn't possible!" said Ivan. He looked at her. "Is it?"

"I didn't think so… But how?" Rhada felt stunned.

"It happened right here," said Max, indicating the tree with a wave of his hand. "To be honest, it was Neytiri who gave Jake and Norm the idea first. You already know about the Na'vi neural connections through their queues. And you've heard about this enormous network that exists between the Pandoran flora and fauna, right?"

Rhada and Ivan nodded.

"Well, the Na'vi can tap into that network. It is even possible for them to upload and download information. The memories of their ancestors can be stored and retrieved. I'm not talking about some sort of mystical quasi-religious experience, this is real! They can really do this!"

"My god," whispered Ivan.

"No, _their_ god!" said Max. "All this network, all this data has coalesced into an actual planetary awareness. The Na'vi call it Eywa. Yes, I know you've heard about that, but you have to understand that it's not just a mythological thing like Zeus or Jehovah, it's as real as the ground we're standing on."

Rhada could only nod.

"There are a lot of different access points scattered around the planet," continued Max. "My theory is that their locations are somehow linked to the planet's magnetic field. Most of them have a fairly limited 'interface', if I can use that term. But here, this is one of Pandora's magnetic poles. The field is strongest here and the Tree of Life is the master interface—a direct line to Eywa. It was with Eywa's help that Jake and the others made their transfers."

"That's… that's incredible," said Rhada.

"Yeah, it is. But anyway, back to tonight. Each clan has a high priestess, a Tsahik. She is the interpreter of Eywa's will, but she is also the keeper of the clan's history. The Na'vi have no written language, but they hardly need one. The Tsahik _remembers_ everything that has happened to her people, stretching back many generations."

"What, with all the stored information in the network?" asked Rhada.

"Partially, but there is more to it than that," replied Max. "The position of Tsahik is passed from mother to daughter. You see the old woman there next to the tree? That's the Tsahik of the Kalanatu clan. She's dying. But before she dies, she is going to pass on her clan's history to her daughter, the other woman there."

"She's going to transfer her consciousness?" gasped Rhada. "Like you said Jake and the others did with their avatars? But what happens to the mind of the daughter?"

"No, no, it's not like that!" said Max. "She will just pass on the factual information she carries, not her whole personality. As I understand it, that will go to Eywa, but the information will be passed on to the daughter. Somehow Eywa filters and sorts what goes where."

"That's really possible?"

"Like I said: until I saw what happened to Jake I wouldn't have believed it, but there was no denying that. After it was over, Jake's human body was dead and Jake was in his avatar's body. If Eywa can do that, this ought to be child's play."

"This is… is…"

"Mind-boggling," said Ivan.

"Yeah. That. But you said Neytiri gave Jake and Norm the idea. The idea for what?"

Max looked down at the ground and seemed upset. "It was just before the war. Grace Augustine got shot during their escape from the base. She was dying, but she refused to go back for medical treatment because that would have meant surrendering. Neytiri had once told Jake about the Tireafya'o that she would undergo when her mother was old and dying. Somehow Jake made an incredible leap of logic to suggest that Grace could be transferred entirely to her avatar. They tried, but she had been too badly wounded. The transfer didn't work. Or it only half worked: Grace went in, but she didn't come back out again. Even though it didn't work for Grace, it gave me the idea that it might work for Jake. As it turned out I was right."

"Could… could this be done with any avatar driver?" asked Rhada.

"Hey, don't get any ideas, girl!" said Ivan.

"I'm just asking!"

"Well, that's a big question," said Max. "Jake and Norm made the transfer without any problem, but they had both fought in the battle and maybe Eywa was repaying them somehow. Doris and Hans made it through, too, but… well, frankly, both of them seemed a little… odd afterwards. No one else was willing to give it a try after that."

"Odd how?"

"Hard to describe. Just sort of distracted. Otherworldly. Disconnected with reality. They both spend almost all their time in the forest alone these days."

"Huh. I think I'll pass," said Ivan.

"Okay, it looks like they are about to start," said Max. "Keep quiet and just watch." He busied himself with his instruments.

What happened next was the most amazing thing Rhada had ever experienced. Hundreds of Na'vi seated themselves in rows facing the tree. They linked arms and began swaying and singing. The Omaticaya's Tsahik, Mo'at, the same woman who had delivered the Na'vi's defiant message to Earth so many years before, seemed to be in charge of things. Despite her age, she was moving around the base of the tree like a dancer, swaying with the rhythm of the singing. The bioluminescence which seemed to be a part of all life on Pandora was growing brighter as the night deepened. The ground itself was glowing and the tree seemed to be sending out tendrils of light that linked with each of the Na'vi. Ivan nudged her and pointed to some of the closer Na'vi. Rhada stared and gasped: it wasn't just an illusion, actual tendrils of… _something_ were growing out of the ground and twining themselves around the Na'vi queue's!

Near the tree, the old Tsahik slowly lay down on the ground and her daughter did likewise. It was hard to see from this distance, but Rhada thought she could see more of those tendrils wrapping the pair where they lay.

The singing grew louder and swaying more energetic. Ripples of light seemed to pass over the people, out from the tree and then back again. As Rhada stood there she started to feel a tingling all over her body. The singing was merging with a faint babble of voices and she would swear that she wasn't hearing them with her ears alone.

"Do you feel that?" hissed Ivan from beside her. All she could do was nod. Her breath was coming in gasps and her tail was swishing around in time with the music. What was happening? Rhada wanted to shout—or dance—or make love to Ivan—anything! Just standing there seemed intolerable, despite Max's instructions to do nothing.

But just then Mo'at's voice rose above all the others. She stretched upwards and then collapsed on the ground next to the two prone women. The Na'vi's song reached its crescendo and then became silence. Rhada let out the breath she didn't know she was holding. The feeling slowly faded.

"Good God, what was that?" gasped Ivan. She looked at him and he was clearly as stunned as she was. Max, however, was intently watching his instruments, apparently completely unaffected.

Down by the tree, Mo'at slowly got to her feet and motioned to several other women. They came forward and helped the daughter to stand. She stood there talking with Mo'at and nodding her head. Mo'at embraced her and then had the others lead her away. More people came forward and began reverently bundling up the old Tsahik.

"Well, I guess that's it," said Max. "I got a lot of readings, but I'm not sure of _what._"

"Did you feel any of that?" asked Ivan.

"Any of what?"

"I don't know, Max," said Rhada. "But Ivan and I were at least partially tuned in to whatever just happened here. I can't really describe it, but it was… intense."

"Well, _damn!_" said Max. "If I'd know that was going to happen I could have put some sensors on _you_! They couldn't have objected to that!" He was genuinely upset.

"Maybe next time," said Ivan.

They helped Max pack up his equipment and carry it back to the helicopter. He was chattering away the whole time about neurological matters that she could scarcely understand.

"Max," she finally interrupted. "This global network, this Eywa, you say it's a part of all the life on Pandora?"

"That's the theory—I should say that was Grace's theory. The various organisms act like clusters of brain cells. They're all connected together somehow."

"And they hold the Na'vi memories? Like an enormous data base?"

"Something like that." said Max. "I don't have all the answers. Hell, I'm still trying to find the right _questions!_"

"But… but if the life here is like brain cells, what would happen if large amounts of the life were to die?"

"What would happen if a lot of your brain died?" replied Max. "It would be like having a massive stroke."

"No it wouldn't," said Ivan. She looked at him and she could see that he was upset. "It would be like destroying Heaven."

Neither of them said another word the rest of the way back.

* * *

Bit by bit they hammered out the agreement. A week was lost when Norm Spellman's wife. Lanuma, delivered a healthy baby boy and there were celebrations both at Hometree and Heaven's Gate. Jake's demands for safeguards in the treaty were very stringent, but after witnessing the Tireafya'o neither Ivan nor Rhada could really object. "I feel guilty if I squash a bug now," said Ivan to Rhada one day. "I'm afraid I'll wipe out the memory of someone's uncle or something."

"Maybe we should only allow Buddhists to come here," said Rhada.

"Don't give Jake any ideas! But yeah, any humans who are allowed to wander outside of the base are going to have to understand just what's at stake."

"I'm not sure any of them can understand," replied Rhada. "I'm still not sure _I_ understand."

But finally, one day even Jake seemed satisfied with the work they had done. Several more weeks were needed to translate the document into Na'vi because there were no direct equivalents for many of the human words or concepts. Neytiri played a critical role in that. Then, the message was sent out to gather as many clan leaders as possible to discuss the treaty. By this time nearly six months had passed since the day they had first contacted Max.

Ivan and Rhada braced themselves for a contentious debate with the clan leaders, but it turned out to be anti-climactic. When the situation was explained to them and the terms of the treaty described, the majority were puzzled as to why they had even been summoned for such a matter. One leader said: "JakeSulley, you have the Sky People bound as tightly as a tailoang in a net with these words! We will check the knots if you insist, but we trust your judgment in these matters." Jake grumbled that words were not as strong as ropes, but the others just laughed. The Great Council quickly turned into the Great Feast. Finally, Jake was satisfied and the treaty was approved. The Sky People could return to Pandora.

The next day with hundreds of Na'vi and every human on Pandora in attendance, a small shuttle came in for a landing on a stretch of concrete inside the perimeter of the Heaven's Gate base. As the turbines whined to a halt, Rhada and Ivan escorted Jake to a spot a few dozen meters from the hatch. This opened up to disgorge four humans: Amos Henderson, their supervisor, Nadia Kravchenko, who was the RDA director for all activities in the Alpha Centauri A system, and two assistants. One of them carried a long bundle wrapped in cloth.

Kravchenko walked up to a few meters away from Jake and bowed deeply and then straightened, craning her head back to look up at Jake. Then she spoke in Na'vi: "Jakesulley, I stand before you as a representative of the planet Earth. I come to beg forgiveness for the transgressions of my people against yours. I come to ask that you allow us to walk again among your people. I come to tell you that your people are welcome to walk among mine. I come to ask that humans and Na'vi may forever be friends." She bowed again.

Rhada let out her breath. Kravchenko's delivery had been perfect, she had been practicing it for months. There had been debate over the wording: some thought it was too subservient, but Kravchenko had just laughed and reminded them that they were only words and if they got the results they wanted, she was perfectly happy to grovel for a day. Rhada was finding that she liked the director.

Jake stood there regarding the human woman for a few moments and then bowed in return, touching his hand to his chest. "Welcome Nadiakravchenko," he replied. "I welcome you to our world. The Na'vi stand ready to embrace you as brothers and sisters. I pray that today marks the start of many long years of friendship." He bowed again.

"Many thanks, Jakesulley," said Kravchenko. "You are most gracious. Please accept this gift as a token of our sincere desires for friendship." She beckoned her assistant forward and he unwrapped the bundle he was carrying. Inside there was a beautifully crafted antique longbow that had been brought from Earth especially for this moment. It was a common practice among the Na'vi for one clan to give as a gift a bow made from the wood of their own hometree. This was the nearest thing the humans could arrange although no yew tree had grown in England for centuries. Apparently the gesture had been a good guess because there were appreciative murmurs from many of the watching Na'vi. Jake seemed genuinely moved. He reached forward to take the bow, although it was scarcely big enough to suit a Na'vi child.

"You are kind," he said. "This shall hang in a place of honor in our hometree. It shall be a symbol of the goodwill between our people."

The watching Na'vi broke into a high-pitched cheer and the humans applauded. Jake and Kravchenko shook hands and then everyone headed over to the avatar compound where a feast had been prepared. Rhada and Ivan were seated in the same circle with Jake and Kravchenko. The director tried to speak in Na'vi as much as she could, but eventually the conversation lapsed into English.

"Mr. Sulley," she said, "it truly is… interesting to finally meet you. It's a shame we couldn't have arranged this earlier."

"That would have been difficult," said Jake. "The Na'vi didn't want you down here and I could hardly have gone up to the station: you would have had to arrest me."

"Well, that's all behind, us fortunately," said Kravchenko. "As part of the treaty, there is a general amnesty on both sides. You could travel to Earth in perfect safety now if you wanted to."

"I doubt that I'll ever want to do that. However, I do hope that you people will use your common sense about who you send here. Despite the amnesty I doubt someone like Parker Selfridge would find himself welcome—or safe—here."

"Uh, yes, we'll keep that in mind. Although you needn't worry about Mr. Selfridge: I heard that he committed suicide some years back."

An awkward silence descended for a moment, but Rhada broke it by asking: "So, Director Kravchenko, I understand that the new mass-driver is going to go into operation in a few months."

"Yes!" she said, brightening. "We have great hopes for that. It will change everything if it proves successful."

"Mass-driver?" asked Jake.

"It's a new method for sending unobtainium back to Earth. We've constructed a sort of magnetic gun in one of Polyphemus' Trojan Points. It's over a thousand kilometers long and it can accelerate a one kilogram slug of unobtainium up to twenty-five percent of the speed of light. Of course, it will still take seventeen years to reach Earth, but it will be able to fire two slugs a second almost continuously. Once the first one reaches Earth there will be a steady stream of them coming in after that."

"Uh… how do you _catch_ them if they are going that fast?" asked Ivan.

"Ah, that is the trick!" said Kravchenko. "They have an even bigger apparatus there which will guide the slugs into a magnetic _de_-celeration gun that will slow the slug down enough to grab. Obviously, the accuracy of the gun at this end is critical. But if it works, we'll be able to cut out nearly two-thirds of the ISVs we have hauling unobtainium back to Earth. That will free them for other tasks."

"Like what?" asked Jake.

"Well, in a way we have you to thank for this, Mr. Sulley. The… uh…. unpleasantness of twenty years ago served to remind the RDA that Earth and Pandora are not the whole universe. We've been s ending out unmanned probes to a number of likely nearby star systems and we've started to get back reports. It's entirely possible that we will be sending out manned missions to some of them in the future."

"That's' very exciting," said Rhada.

"Pandora is enough for me," said Jake.

"Yes, I can understand that," said Kravchenko. "I've been up there, looking down on this place for five years, but now that I've actually been here, I can see how someone could fall in love with it." She looked around. "It really is beautiful. And the Na'vi are magnificent. Someday they will be a great people."

"They are a great people right now," said Jake.

"Of course, forgive me for sounding patronizing. It is my hope that in the future humans and Na'vi will be able to work side by side for the good of both races."

"I'll drink to that," said Ivan.

"An excellent idea, Mr. Kosegan," said Kravchenko. "Let me propose a toast to our future together!"

As the glasses and cups clinked together, Ivan looked at Rhada. "Mission accomplished? So what now?"

"Good question," said Rhada.

* * *

"Come on, we're going to be late!" shouted Max. "Let's go!"

"Aw, Dad," said Maxie, "What's the big deal? We just saw them yesterday."

"Not like this we didn't, now come on!" Max herded his family out of their apartment, down the corridor and into an airlock. Despite his haste, they all took the time to properly check their breath masks. Once the lock was done cycling, they stepped outside.

It had only been two weeks since the treaty had been signed, but big changes were already taking place at Heaven's Gate. Over a hundred humans had come down from the station with piles of equipment and they were working to fix up the base and make some major improvements and expansions. In just a few months there would be a first-class research facility here with all the supporting infrastructure. As the word got back to Earth that Pandora was open again to scientists, there would be a steady stream of them arriving. Max was excited about being able to do really meaningful work again.

But that was all in the future. Max's mind was on a much more immediate matter. He led his family toward the runway just as a shuttle came in to land. They got there just as the hatch opened up and two people got out. For some reason Max found that he was nervous despite his son's accurate statement that they had seen these two people just the day before.

"Rhada!" he exclaimed as his sister advanced to embrace him. His sister! In human form again. He held her at arm's length and looked her over. The little girl that was still his mental image of her was now a mature woman. Strikingly beautiful despite the clumsy breath mask, she flashed a dazzling smile at him.

"This is better!" she said. "Now my Big Brother is bigger than me again!" They both laughed. Max let her go and shook hand with Ivan. His brother-in-law was a tall, good-looking fellow with sandy hair and broad shoulders.

"So, welcome to Pandora! I'm so glad that you are able to come down here in person," he said.

"I see you only have overnight bags," said Cynthia. "You aren't moving down here for good?"

"We're not sure yet," said Ivan. "I don't think anyone expected us to be successful so quickly. Our instructions are a bit vague once our primary mission was complete. Director Kravchenko is trying to decide what to do with us now."

"You would certainly be welcome to stay," said Max. "Rhada, there is plenty of work for a geologist here."

"Yes, I've been seriously considering that, Max."

"You can discuss business later," said Cynthia firmly. "This is supposed to be a family outing. So let's stroll."

They obeyed and began a circuit of the base, looking at all the activity. "They certainly didn't waste any time getting to work," observed Rhada.

"Well, they have a huge stockpile of equipment that was originally intended for the Site 2 operation. I think Director Kravchenko was eager to get it cleared out," said Max.

"And you have people inspecting all this before it comes down?" asked Ivan.

"Yes," sighed Max, "and that is turning into a problem. Under the terms of the treaty, nothing can be shipped down here without being inspected by a Pandoran citizen. Jake didn't want there to be any possibility of weapons or troops being smuggled in. But there are so few of us! We've been rotating four-man teams up to the station, but that's going to get old real fast. Jake's looking into the possibility of getting some Na'vi volunteers to help out."

"Na'vi? Up on the station? Could that work?"

"We're not certain. There are a lot of technical problems even if we could find Na'vi willing to do it. I'm trying to get Jake to agree to inspections down here rather than up on the station. He's afraid that a big shuttle is going to land full of assault troops if we don't inspect them up at the station first."

"Jake worries too much," snorted Cynthia.

"It's not entirely unjustified," insisted Max. "Considering what's happened in the past."

"Well, I'd be willing to help out with the inspections," said Ivan, "I'm no geologist and I don't know what I'd do down here."

"Except you're not a Pandoran citizen, so you wouldn't be qualified to do the inspections, love," said Rhada. "And I don't like the idea of you being up there while I'm down here."

"Yeah, that's not too good. Of course, you'd probably be driving your avatar a lot and I could still drive mine even from up on the station. We could still be together."

"Interesting idea," smiled Rhada.

"I can suggest it to Jake," said Max. "I'm sure he trusts you, Ivan. But I'm hoping that after a while Jake will be willing to relax all these precautions a bit once he sees that there's no danger."

"You're talking business again, people," said Cynthia scoldingly. "Say, take a look at that, Ivan. Make you feel weird?" She pointed.

"Yeah, it sure does," said Ivan. Their walk had taken them near the avatar compound and Ivan's avatar was out on the exercise circuit. Since an avatar needed to eat and excrete and get exercise even when its driver might not be available to link up, it was possible for the avatars to perform those simple tasks completely under computer control. Most drivers liked to link up frequently making this unnecessary, but sometimes it just wasn't possible. Rhada looked back and forth between the avatar and her husband.

"It _is_ weird," she said, snuggling up to him. "But I'll take him either way."

They continued their stroll, but then Rhada's and Ivan's communicators buzzed with a priority signal. "Huh," said Rhada after she read it.

"What's up, Sis?" asked Max.

"It's a message from Dr. Pilsen. Listen to this: 'Arriving on ISV-13. Expecting you to have settled matters by then. Good work. See you soon.' What do you make of that?"

"ISV-13, that's due to make orbit in just three weeks," said Max. "Pilsen's coming here? Why?"

"I guess we'll find out," said Rhada.

* * *

A little over three weeks later Dr. Pilsen landed at Heaven's Gate. Rhada and Ivan were there to meet her. Rhada was shocked to see that Pilsen was in a wheel chair. "God, what happened to her?" she whispered to Ivan. The woman looked ancient.

"She's over ninety years old, love," said Ivan.

"Yeah, but she wasn't like this when we left and subtracting the cryo, that was only eighteen months ago!"

But despite her handicap, Pilsen had a big smile on her face when she rolled up to Rhada. "Well, we meet again! And somewhere neither of expected, I warrant. But congratulations to both of you on the treaty! That went faster than I'd dared hope."

"Hello, Doctor," said Rhada, bending over to give her a hug. "Welcome to Pandora."

"Thank you, it's good to be here. After studying this place remotely for decades, it's wonderful to get a look at it in person. I think it was worth the wait. Oh, let me introduce my assistant: this is Greg Hansen," she indicated a serious-looking man who had come up behind her. They shook hands all around.

"Well," said Ivan, "let's get you settled. We have some brand new quarters right over there."

"Good, but I want to make sure my cargo is taken care of first," said Pilsen. She swung herself around and they watched as two large containers were wheeled off the shuttle.

"What have you got there?" asked Rhada.

"Those?" said Pilsen with a grin. "Why those are our avatars."

"Avatars!" gasped Rhada. "You mean…?"

"Oh course! You didn't think I came all this way just to be stuck in this chair the whole time! Greg and I are fully qualified and I'm looking forward to doing some field work!"

Pilsen was as good as her word and two days later she and Hansen and Rhada and Greg were driving their avatars through the forest close to Heaven's Gate. With their human selves now on Pandora there was no time-lag to worry about and Rhada could notice the difference.

"Don't get any ideas about trying to get yourself a real ikran," Ivan warned her.

"No thanks! The clones are scary enough for me, thank you."

Pilsen seemed delighted at the excursion. Freed from her wheelchair she was as lively as a school girl. She stopped to look at every plant and she knew more about many of them than Rhada. Later on they met up with Norm Spellman who was taking his family out for their baby's first outing. The little blue imp was utterly adorable and everyone said so. His two older children, nearly adults now, were stalking game with their bows and complained at all the noise the adults were making. In the cleared area around Heaven's Gate Rhada didn't know how much game they would be able to find.

"So, Doctor Spellman," said Pilsen, "How are you finding life on Pandora among the Na'vi?"

Norm laughed. "That's the first time anyone's called me 'doctor' in twenty years. But I'm finding life here very agreeable, Dr. Pilsen. It's very strange: I was never much of an outdoor person back home, but here I can't image any other way."

"Well, perhaps it's because the outdoors here is so much more interesting," suggested Pilsen. "We still have a lot of green on Earth, but it's all wheatfields and cornfields and truck farms to feed all those hungry mouths. Hardly any really natural forests left at all."

"Maybe," said Norm, "but I'd like to think that it's more of a matter of the company I keep." He put his arm around Lanuma.

"Yes!" laughed Pilsen. "I'm sure that makes a big difference. Well, I hope your happiness continues. And I would be most pleased if we could sit and talk sometime: I'd love to hear about all your experiences here."

After a while Norm's family went on their way and the tour continued. Late in the day Rhada found herself walking with Pilsen while the two men were a distance away. "Rhada," said Pilsen, "I have something to tell you, dear."

"What?"

"This isn't going to be easy and I'm just going to come right out and say it: Rhada, I'm dying."

"What! Oh no!" She felt stricken. Ever since that day when Pilsen had rescued them from Suvarov's dungeon she had been fond of her. Working together for years before she and Ivan left for Pandora had only strengthened the feelings. She was like a favorite aunt. Tears started to form in her eyes. "What's… what's wrong?"

"I'm sorry to have to distress you so, child, but you need to know. It's a degenerative condition similar to Parkinson's. My mind is as sharp as ever, but my traitor body is rotting around me."

"How long…?"

"The doctors gave me from six to twelve months before I left. But they frankly warned me that six years in cryo was not going to do me any good. I might have considerably less now."

"It can't be treated?"

"Oh, it has been treated, believe be!" snorted Pilsen. "Without all the treatments I would have died twenty years ago. But everything that can be done has been done. My time is running out at last."

"I'm so sorry!" cried Rhada. She took Pilsen's hand and tears leaked down her face.

"There, there, girl! I've had a full life. And I get to live out my last months as a young, strong Na'vi! I'm afraid that I shamelessly abused my position in the RDA to have this avatar made for me. But I had always wanted to see this place and I just couldn't bear the idea of dying a helpless invalid in bed. Was that selfish of me, dear?"

"Oh no! Not at all! I'm so glad you were able to come here."

"Good! I plan to enjoy myself here, so let's not talk about sad things anymore. I'll race you to the tree!' Pilsen darted ahead like a hexapede and Rhada couldn't catch her.

That night, back in their quarters Rhada snuggled up against Ivan and sniffled. He was immediately aware. "What's wrong? You've been down in the dumps ever since we got back." Rhada told him about Dr. Pilsen. "Well, hell, that's really a shame," he said when she was finished. "The old girl has certainly been good to us. We'll have to make sure she gets to do anything she wants in the time she's got left."

Rhada cried for a bit against Ivan's chest and he stroked her hair. After a while she stirred.

"Ivan?"

"Hmmm?"

"Ivan, I just had an amazing idea!"

"Mmmm…. Me, too…" he pulled her closer.

"Not that! About Doctor Pilsen! What if… what if she were able to do the Tireafya'o the way Jake and Norm did? She could abandon her dying body and survive in her avatar!"

"My god," gasped Ivan. "Wouldn't that be something?"

"It could work, couldn't it?"

"I guess. But you heard what Max said about the other two that tried it."

"Well at least they were alive. And it didn't actually hurt them, I don't think."

"It's certainly an interesting idea. Would the Na'vi go along with it? I'm sort of assuming that the Tree of Life doesn't have a handy 'on' switch and that we'd need their help in making it work."

"Let's talk to Max in the morning."

"Shouldn't you ask Dr. Pilsen if she even wants to do this first? She might not want to, you know."

"All right, we'll talk with both of them in the morning!"

"Okay, and in the meantime, I still have that other amazing idea."

* * *

Max stared from face to face and frowned. When Rhada said that she wanted to meet with him and Ivan and Dr. Pilsen he hadn't been sure what to expect. He surely hadn't expected this! "Rhada, are you really serious about this?"

"Why not?" asked Rhada. "It worked for the others. Why not Doctor Pilsen?"

"I don't know…"

"Dr. Patel," said Pilsen, " I can understand your hesitation. When Rhada came to me this morning with this proposal it seemed…. Well, it seemed like extreme wishful thinking on the part of a distraught friend." She paused and smiled at Rhada. "But then I remembered an old, old report from you concerning this very topic. It was very preliminary, as I recall, and at the time we were involved in all that unfortunate business with responding to the troubles here and I never followed up on it. But this 'transference', as Rhada calls it, it really happened with Jake Sulley and three others?"

"Oh, there's no question that it happened. I just have my doubts about Eywa or the Na'vi helping a stranger like that."

"We can at least ask!" cried Rhada. Max was surprised by how intense his sister was about this. He hadn't realized how close she was to Pilsen.

"We can ask the Na'vi. I can't think of any way to ask Eywa except by trying it."

"What are the risks?" asked Greg Hansen, Pilsen's assistant.

"How should I know?" said Max in exasperation. "Grace went in but didn't come out, Doris and Hans came out but altered somehow. "

"Grace Augustine tried it too?" asked Pilsen in surprise. ""Your report said nothing about that. I knew Grace well, we were friends. I thought she had been killed in the fighting."

"We don't know for sure what happened to Grace," said Max. "She'd been wounded and the transfer didn't work. We just don't have enough information on this phenomena."

"Well, if we can get the Na'vi's help to try this, I'm willing to act the guinea pig," said Pilsen. "You can wire me up the kazoo and take all the readings you want, Dr. Patel. I'd hoped to do some last bit of real science while I was here, but I didn't imagine it would be anything this interesting!" the old woman grinned and Max could see why Rhada liked her.

"Well, I guess it can't hurt to ask Jake. And please call me Max. We've been informal down here for so long the titles seem strange."

"Agreed," said Pilsen. "We are all on a first name basis now. Please, everyone, call me Carla. That includes you, Rhada."

Rhada smiled and nodded. "When can we go and see Jake?"

* * *

Jake was helping his son with some arrowheads when the word came that the party was approaching from Heaven's Gate on horseback. Max had called earlier telling him that he wanted to drop by with a few guests to make an unusual request. He got up after making sure the boy knew what he was doing and walked down Hometree's central spiral walkway. When he reached the bottom Norm was leading them in. He had taken the horses to the base to collect the others and bring them back. Along with Max were Rhada and Ivan and two avatars Jake hadn't seen before. Max looked very relieved when Norm lowered him to the ground from where he'd been perched.

"Whew! I think I'll stick to helicopters!" said Max. "Jake, I'd like to introduce you to Carla Pilsen and Greg Hansen. Jake gave a formal greeting in Na'vi. He was impressed when the woman replied in kind. The male just nodded and said hello in English.

"What's this all about?" asked Jake. "What's this request you have?"

"Is there somewhere we can talk in private?" asked Max. "And is Mo'at around? I think this might concern her, too."

"She's off with Neytiri somewhere. I'll send someone to find them. We can meet over by the river." He led the way after telling one of the children to fetch his wife and mother-in-law. Presently they were seated in the shade on the riverbank. Polyphemus hung huge in the sky and it was as nice a day as you could ask for. But what was this 'unusual request'? If they were going to ask about bringing down weapons or other stuff banned by the treaty, they were out of luck! Part of him had been expecting exactly that right from the start: make an agreement, then ask for a little exception, then ask for a bigger one… no! Despite all the good will that had been flowing, Jake still didn't trust the Sky People.

"Something wrong, Jake?" asked Norm.

"No. Why?"

"You were glowering."

"I do that. It's my job."

"Oh yeah, right. I forgot." Norm smirked at him. Fortunately, Neytiri and Mo'at chose that moment to arrive, so the exchange didn't go on. Introductions were made and they all sat and looked to Max.

"Okay, so what's the request?"

"Uh, wow," said Max looking really uneasy. "This seemed like a better idea when we first thought of it. Now I feel a little crazy even asking."

"Max!" cried Rhada, "If you won't ask him, I will!"

"Ask me what?" said Jake.

Max made a soothing motion toward Rhada and then turned back to face him. "Jake, Carla's human body is over ninety years old. She's confined to a wheelchair. She has a disease that will probably kill her in less than a year. We, had the idea that she could try the same thing that you and Norm did and transfer herself to her avatar."

Jake sat back stunned. He was _not _expecting this! "Yeah," he said letting out is breath. "That's not your everyday usual request all right. But you're asking the wrong guy on this one. This is an Eywa matter and that means that Mo'at has the say." He looked over at the woman, privately glad that he could pass the buck on this one!

The Tsahik of the Omaticaya frowned and asked that the request be explained to her again. She got up and said: "Let me think on this a moment." She walked away from the others along the riverbank. Jake took Neytiri's hand. "What do you think of this?" he whispered.

"I don't know. I remember how it broke my heart to see you trapped in that awful chair with the wheels. I would not wish that on anyone. But still…"

"Yeah."

It wasn't long before Mo'at returned. "I have considered this request. I am sorry, but I must say no."

"But why?" cried Rhada. "You helped Jake and the others!"

"Jakesulley was the chosen champion of Eywa. That was his reward. Normspelmon was Jake's loyal companion and fought bravely. The other two had a special love for the forest and Eywa granted them a boon. I have no doubt that Carlapilsen is a fine woman, but she has lived the span of years allotted to her kind. She asks this now only to cheat death and live another life which is not hers. This is not Eywa's way. I am sorry." Mo'at nodded and then walked away.

Rhada was distraught and Ivan tried to comfort her. "There's nothing you can do?" asked Max.

Jake shrugged. "There's no way I can overrule her, Max, you know that. And without her blessing, there's nothing any of us can do." He found that it was very hard to look Carla in the eye, but he forced himself to. "I'm sorry." She looked back with a strange expression but nodded and got up and walked back toward where the horses were waiting. The others followed.

* * *

Carla Pilsen kept herself under rigid control while the others were watching, but once back on the horses, she clenched her fist and muttered a curse under her breath. The damned horse picked up on her emotions and nearly threw her off before she could regain control. Greg came up beside her.

"You're not just going to accept this are you?" he hissed. "Everything depends on making this happen!"

"Keep your voice down! We'll talk when we get back. And no, I'm not just going to accept this." She glared at him and he moved away.

Damn! Everything had been going so well! Rhada and Ivan had played their parts to perfection. The girl had even come up with the idea on her own without even needing a nudge. She was smart—but fortunately, not too smart. Not smart enough to realize what was really going on.

Pilsen had been working on this ever since she had been first diagnosed. When it had become obvious that no normal cure was going to be found for her condition she had started looking at unconventional methods. Cloning had seemed like the best bet. Human cloning was illegal, of course, but that didn't stop her any more than it had stopped Dr. Cordell Lovecraft. The man credited with developing the neural connection that made the Na'vi avatars possible had not had that in mind at all when he started. He'd been trying to develop avatars using _human_ clones and unknown to the vast majority of mankind, he had succeeded. There were resorts, _very_ exclusive resorts, where the obscenely rich could go to be young again. Old, fat or infirm men and women could drive fit young avatars and cavort with other beautiful young people. It was incredibly expensive and very, very secret. The average man in the street could never afford it and wouldn't stand for anyone else being able to afford it. Yachts and mansions and luxury were one thing, but _youth_ was something else entirely. No one should be able to buy that! Lovecraft had made a fortune, but he also craved fame and so he went on to found the Pandoran avatar program for the RDA which, oddly enough, no one objected to.

But there was one problem with the human avatar program: the original body would still die eventually. There was no way to permanently transfer the consciousness from the old body to the new. Oh, they had tried! Tried dozens of times with 'volunteers', many of whom did not survive. But there had been no success, not even close.

And that wasn't good enough for Carla Pilsen. The situation was completely unacceptable. It wasn't even about the dying, it was about control. Pilsen insisted on controlling her world. Everything about her world. The idea that she was going to lose control of her own body was intolerable. There had to be something she could do.

Then she had stumbled across Max Patel's old report on the transference of Jake Sulley and Norm Spellman from their own bodies into their avatars. No one had given it any attention when it first arrived. It _did_ seem rather crazy after all and it included no proof of any kind. But it was exactly what Pilsen had been looking for.

She had devised this whole program: sending Rhada and Ivan, re-opening relations with the Na'vi, shipping herself and an avatar to Pandora, all to arrange for this moment.

And the old bitch was refusing to cooperate!

There had to be a way. There had to! She fumed all the way back to the base. It was made all the worse by Rhada's repeated attempts to console her.

After dinner she met privately with Hansen. The man was acting as her assistant, but he actually represented a consortium of companies that owned those exclusive resorts back on Earth. She had needed their help because the RDA had not been willing to buy an avatar for her. Indeed, the RDA knew nothing about her secret plans. Oh, they knew about her avatar, but they believed it was exactly what she had told Rhada: a last bit of fun before the Grim Reaper claimed her.

But the consortium had a huge interest in what she had planned. If it could be made to work from a human to a Na'vi clone then surely it could be made to work from a human to a human clone. And once that ability was in their hands… Immortality—for a price! Pilsen didn't care about their plans. She just needed to make it work for herself. Hopefully, once she was in a healthy Na'vi body she could eventually get back into a healthy human body. But even if that never proved possible being a young, healthy Na'vi was a whole lot better than being a an old, dead human.

"So what are we going to do?" demanded Hansen.

"Well, I had hoped that simply playing on their sympathy would be enough. It probably would have worked on everyone else. Even Sulley was going to have a soft spot for someone in a wheelchair. But I hadn't counted on the Dragon Lady—and she's the key."

"Is there any leverage we can apply to her?"

"I don't know. There are clearly people dear to her, but you weren't able to bring the firepower to get involved in taking hostages. That would just be too risky."

"What else does she care about?"

"She cares about Eywa."

Hansen snorted. "How do you threaten a goddess?"

Pilsen slowly smiled. "There might be a way."

* * *

"Max," said Jake, "I realize that this is important to your sister, but Mo'at has said no and believe me, after twenty years mated to her daughter I know that she's not gonna to change her mind!"

Max looked at Jake's image in his computer display. He glanced at Rhada and then at Carla Pilsen in her wheelchair. "Jake, Carla has asked to make one last appeal to Mo'at. She says she has a new argument in her favor. She says that if Mo'at refuses again, she'll drop it not ask again. Come on, Jake! Where's the harm?"

Jake looked peeved, but after a moment he nodded and said: "All right, I'll ask if she'll see you again. I'll call you back." He broke the connection.

"That's about all I can do," said Max helplessly.

"Thank you for trying, Max," said Pilsen. "I feel guilty putting you through this. Maybe I should just give it up and die like I'm supposed to."

"Oh no!" said Rhada. "We have to try everything! Please don't give up, Carla!"

"All right, dear, if you insist."

They waited. An hour went by and then two. Finally, Jake called them back. "Okay, she will listen to what you have to say. Frankly, that's a lot more than I expected. When are you going to come?" Max looked at the others.

"Oh dear," said Carla. "I have to do a couple of things before I'll be ready to link up to my avatar. But doesn't Norm have to bring the horses anyway? A couple of hours, say?"

Max relayed this to Jake who agreed. "Okay, we'll be there in a few hours." He looked at Carla. "Do you want me to come?"

"Yes, of course, dear. I'd like to have all of you there for moral support."

A few hours later they started off with Max riding in front of Norm like before. "So what's her new argument?" asked Norm.

"I don't know, she wouldn't say. I just hope Mo'at is in a receptive mood."

"Do you? You sure about that?"

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"Maybe I'm prejudiced, but I found Mo'at's argument for saying no rather compelling: Pilsen's had her time, why should she get more just because she has the means to come here? What about the other twelve billion people back on Earth?"

"I hadn't really thought about that," replied Max. "But Rhada's really upset about this. Apparently she and Ivan owe an awful lot to Pilsen."

"Well, Mo'at has the final say. By the way, where is Pilsen's buddy, Greg? Why isn't he coming along?"

"I don't know."

They reached Hometree and went to the same spot they had been before. Mo'at, Jake and Neytiri were waiting for them. Mo'at didn't seem in a particularly good mood. "What more do you have to say to me, Carlapilsen?" she asked.

Pilsen stepped forward and bowed. Max marveled at the beauty and grace of her avatar body compared to the wrinkled carcass that housed her mind. She must have been a knockout when she was young. If he were in her shoes would he be making the same case? "Mo'at, Tsahik of the Omaticaya, again I beg this boon of you. Grant me the Tireafya'o."

"That is all? Jake said that you had a new argument to convince me. These are the same words as before."

"This is your final decision then?" asked Pilsen.

"Yes," said Mo'at and she seemed angry. Max was confused. Where was Pilsen's new argument? Pilsen spread her arms.

"Then you leave me no choice. It saddens me to do this. Ivan?"

Ivan Kosegan jerked like he'd been stung by a Hellfire wasp. "Huh?"

"Ivan, years ago, when you were working for our dear friend, Jeremiah Suvarov during the crisis over Pandora, didn't you once see him conferring with a man you later identified as connected with a bio-weapons program in a rather disreputable country?"

"What?" Ivan looked as confused as Max felt. Everyone was stirring uneasily. "Uh, yeah, yeah, I remember that. I told you about it when you sprung us from detention. But what…?"

"Well, as I found out after Suvarov resigned, he had made a deal with that man and the product he ordered was, in fact, delivered. It's a rather nasty little plague—a plague tailored to affect Pandoran life."

"What?" cried Max. Nearly everyone else was crying out, too.

"Carla!" exclaimed Rhada, her face twisted in disbelief. "What are you saying?"

"I'm saying that I kept that little bug frozen all these years and that I brought it along with me—just in case I needed it in a situation like this."

"But that means that… that… _you used me!"_

"Yes, I did. I'm sorry, child."

"I'm not your child!" Rhada's voice rose to a scream. Her hand strayed to her knife hilt. Jake and Neytiri already had theirs drawn. Norm looked horrified.

"Calm down everyone," said Pilsen. "If we all cooperate, no one needs to get hurt. The plague is in a container with an explosive dispersal system. I have secreted it somewhere in the forest where you'll never find it. In forty-eight hours it will release the plague into the environment. It won't kill everything, but the damage will be enormous."

"You monster!" screamed Rhada. "I trusted you!" Tears were streaming down her face and she had her knife out. Ivan had to hold her back.

"If you kill me, I'll just wake up in my old body and the plague will be released automatically. Only I can stop it. Now, it is all very simple: grant me the Tireafya'o or else. As you all know, I have nothing to lose at this point. But you have a great deal to lose."

"I will not do this!" cried Mo'at. "It is a crime against Eywa!" She had a knife now, too.

"I make you a proposal," said Pilsen. She spread her hands and smiled. "Why don't we leave it to Eywa? She can grant me the boon or she can destroy me. Let her decide."

"If she destroys you, you won't be able to stop the plague," said Jake. Max could see that he was furious. Max was pretty furious himself.

"Greg is standing by to bring my human body to the Well of Souls," said Pilsen. "I've left a coded message up on the space station with instructions on how to find the plague. Greg knows how to retrieve the message, but he can only do it on the station. If I don't survive the transfer, you let Greg go back to the station and once he's safely there he'll tell you where the plague is. Simple enough. Do we have a deal?"

They had to explain everything to Mo'at twice before it sank in. The Na'vi woman was shaking with fury but she finally nodded. "Very well! We will let Eywa decide! You will come to regret it, _vrrtep_!"

"Perhaps. Shall we get going?"

* * *

Rhada looked at Carla Pilsen's avatar and wanted to cut its throat. It was lying limply on the ground next to the Tree of Life. Pilsen had broken the link in order to have her human body brought here. Supposedly, she was on her way by helicopter even now. "I can't believe this is happening," she hissed. "What an idiot I was!"

"We all were," said Ivan. "She fooled all of us. But she's been playing this game for sixty years, Rhada. We were way out of our league. You can't blame yourself."

Hundreds of Na'vi were flowing into the area near the Tree. None of them had any idea that something was wrong. All they knew was that one of the Sky People was going to attempt the Tireafya'o just as their own leader had many years ago. Most of them were in high spirits.

"But I still don't get this," said Ivan. "Even if it works, she'll be a _Na'vi_! Where is she going to go? No one here is going to let her stay. And once we've got the plague, Jake'll probably kill her!"

"I don't know if she's even thought that far ahead, although knowing her she probably has. She's desperate right now. But Ivan, if Eywa does let her through Pilsen can use that as a sign of Eywa's approval. Would the Na'vi even dare to act against her after that?"

"Damn. She _is_ clever. I hadn't thought of that. Could it work?"

"I don't know. Mo'at is Eywa's high priestess and if she accepts Eywa's will in this, I don't know if anyone could dispute it."

"Well we sure as hell can! Pilsen's bio-weapon threat breaks so many laws we can get her thrown in jail for so long she'll never get out no matter how many Tireafya'os she can squeeze out of us!"

"Really?" said Rhada and her blood ran cold. Her brain was finally working again and she didn't like what it was telling her. "What if she threatens to implicate you in this, Ivan?"

"Me? How could she… oh my god."

"You knew about Suvarov's meeting. You were part of his team…"

"…and he's dead now so there's no proof I didn't know about it. If we threaten Pilsen with it, she can threaten right back! _Damn!_"

"She might actually get away with this—if Eywa cooperates."

"Let's just pray she doesn't. Well, we'll know soon enough." An approaching helicopter could be heard in the distance.

All too soon Pilsen appeared, carried on a stretcher by two men. Greg Hansen, in his avatar, led two more carrying several large bundles. Jake intercepted him. "What's all this?" he demanded.

"Instruments," said Hansen. "Dr. Pilsen wants a complete record."

"Yes," said Pilsen from her stretcher. "Max, would you be a dear and take charge of this? I know you are too good a scientist to let this opportunity slip by."

Max cursed under his breath but did as he was told. He began sorting through things and setting up scanners and attaching sensors to the ground and the tree and to Pilsen, herself. He came over and stuck a few on Rhada and Ivan, too. He looked helplessly at her.

"Go ahead, Max," said Rhada. "Maybe we'll gain something from this mess."

Eventually Max signaled that he was ready and they took their places. Rhada and Ivan were considerably closer than the last time. Mo'at came forward, walking stiffly and signaled her people to get ready. Pilsen was lifted off her stretcher and the light robe she was wearing removed. She lay naked on the ground except for her breath mask. She looked up at Rhada. "Try not to hate me, dear. Hopefully, I'll see you again in a few minutes."

"I'd rather see you in Hell," whispered Rhada.

It began.

* * *

Carla Pilsen lay on the cold ground and wondered what was going to happen. Would it hurt? Would it work? Could she bluff her way past a god? She'd never been one to back down from a challenge, but she'd never made a gamble this big either. _Fortune favors the bold, they say._

All around she could hear the Na'vi chanting. It was quite lovely. The beautiful white tree was overhead and Mo'at danced in and out of her line of sight. She felt a strange tickling on her skin. Oh yes, those tendrils Rhada mentioned. Were they actually penetrating inside her? It didn't feel like it, but she was growing numb all over. It might have just been her getting chilled, but she didn't think so. No, she couldn't feel her legs at all anymore and her arms were too heavy to move. No turning back now.

The tree seemed to be getting brighter and brighter and then, suddenly she was falling straight up into it…

She was somewhere else.

It was just a formless white void. She didn't seem to have any body and there was nothing to focus her eyes on even if she still had eyes. She was just floating in the void. She waited for quite a while and then ventured:

"Hello?" She wasn't speaking, but her query seemed to echo in the void.

"Hello? Eywa?"

No answer.

She started to get worried. Being stuck here would not be a good thing.

"Eywa, I want to pass through to my avatar body. Please let me pass."

Nothing.

"Eywa, I realize I've done some things you might not like, but I really didn't have any choice. If you can see what's in my mind then you know there is no bio-weapon. I lied about that and it's all a bluff. But it's really to your advantage to let me pass."

Still nothing. This wasn't good. Perhaps stronger measures…?

"Answer me! It really is to your advantage! If my people know that you can do this for them then they will protect your world with every resource they have! Pandora will be a priceless treasure to them, worth more than all the riches in the universe. But if you don't let me through, they'll only look on Pandora for what they can squeeze out of it. Just like before but worse! Look into my mind and see how trustworthy humans are in their treaties! They'll be back! Sooner or later they will come and strip the planet bare! I can prevent that!"

She was about to shout again when she felt something. Something was approaching. She couldn't see it or hear it, but she knew that something was coming close.

"Eywa?"

"Eywa, answer me!"

Finally a voice answered her:

"Why Carla, fancy meeting _you_ here!"

* * *

The chanting had stopped and Mo'at was kneeling on the ground. Neither of Carla Pilsen's bodies seemed to be moving. Rhada looked from one to the other and held her breath. It had felt sort of like the first time—but not quite. Had it worked?

"What's happening?' demanded Greg Hansen. He now had a gun in his hand. A gun specially made to fit a Na'vi. Where had he gotten that? The four humans who had carried Pilsen and the equipment were armed now, too. Damn, the weapons must have been hidden in the equipment bags. "What's happening?"

"Uh…" said Max. "Something's happening, I think." He was frantically going from one read-out to another. "Pilsen's… I mean Pilsen's human readings are fading... no, they're gone completely now. But something's happening with the avatar! Yes, the readings are getting stronger and there's definitely brain activity!"

Rhada let out a sigh. Damn, Pilsen had even talked her way past Eywa! What was going to happen now? She stared at the avatar.

Slowly the bio-luminescence faded and the tiny tendril pulled away from the two bodies. Finally, the avatar began to stir. Hansen stepped closer. Carla? Carla? Are you all right?"

The body began to twitch.

Soon it was thrashing around uncontrollably. "What's happening?" screamed Hansen. He pointed the gun at Max and Rhada tensed and felt for her knife.

"I don't know!" cried Max. "The readings look almost normal!"

Hansen cursed and turned back to Pilsen. The avatar wasn't shaking so much and eventually it was lying limply where its thrashings had left it. Hansen grabbed its arm and hauled it upright. It just sat there, its eye partially open, but the pupils wandered around aimlessly. "Damn! What happened!"

"Eywa has passed judgment on this one," said Mo'at, rising to her feet.

"Damn you!" snarled Hensen. "Do something!" He pointed his gun at Mo'at.

"If you hurt anyone, none of you are getting out of here alive," said Jake menacingly. Four hundred Na'vi were now on their feet. Confused, but still a threat.

"Carla!" shouted Hansen. "Wake up!" He shook her and she started drooling. He let go of her arm and she collapsed back on the ground. He stared at her in horror and began to back away. The men fell in beside him with their guns leveled. "Back to the chopper," he snapped.

"What about them?" one of the men indicated both of Pilsen's bodies.

"Leave 'em, they're worthless now!" They began to retreat. Some of the Na'vi moved to block them, but Jake ordered them to give way.

"I'll expect the location of the bomb, Hansen," he called. "You'll never leave this system if you screw us!"

Hansen didn't answer. He and his men ran for the helicopter. Shortly, they heard it take off and fade in the distance. Rhada sighed in relief.

"I guess she couldn't outfox Eywa after all," said Ivan.

"But I don't understand," said Max," these reading show a lot of brain activity in the avatar."

"You can do a thorough exam later, Max," said Jake. "Right now we have to be certain that plague bomb doesn't go off. I don't trust Hansen and I don't believe that Pilsen could have hidden it completely beyond finding. We've still got over forty hours and I'm going to send out every man, woman and child to search!"

"No need for that, Jake," said a voice.

Everyone spun around and Rhada was amazed to see Pilsen's avatar get to its feet. It stretched lazily and looked around with a smile.

"Dr. Pilsen?" said Jake, his hand on his knife.

The avatar's smile grew wide.

"Guess again, Numbnuts."

* * *

Jake stared in utter confusion at the Na'vi woman standing in front of him. It didn't look like her, its voice didn't sound like her. But it sure talked like…

"Grace?"

"Got it in two," said the woman. "It's nice to be back."

"Grace!" It _was_ her. There was just something about the way the avatar moved, the position of its hands… that smile! "Grace, how did you…?"

"By the goodness of Eywa, of course," she said. "We teamed up to do a little avatar-jacking."

Max stumbled over to her and looked up at her face. "Grace! My God, Grace!" Max had been very close to Grace, Jake knew. Grace reached out and placed a hand on his head.

"Hi Max!" Max just stared at her, eyes filled with tears.

"But… But I don't understand," said Jake. "I thought that the human body and the avatar had to have matching DNA." He looked from Grace to Pilsen's body. "That's not your body."

"For a normal connection, yes," said Grace. "The normal neural link is a constant back and forth flow of information, right, Max?"

"Uh, yes. Without congruency in the brain structure, the link would fail. But this… I'm not sure what this is." Max looked ready to faint.

"It's like writing something fresh," said Grace. "All that's needed is a blank sheet to write on." She did a pirouette and bowed. "And, presto! Here I am!" She straightened up and laughed.

"What… what happened to Pilsen?" asked Rhada.

"Ah, Carla," said Grace. "Let's just say that her karma still needs a little work. Eywa will see to that."

"I'm… I'm sorry your friend betrayed you like that." Rhada looked at Pilsen's lifeless body.

Grace laughed again. "Oh, yes, she did tell you that, didn't she? Not hardly! Rivals, is more like it. We were never friends."

"Another lie," said Rhada shaking her head.

"But Grace," said Jake. "You said not to bother about the plague bomb. Do you know where it is?"

"It's nowhere. It never existed. It was all a bluff by Carla."

Jake gave a huge sigh of relief. "Damn! She _was_ good"

"Yeah, I'll give her that," said Grace. "I learned early on _never_ to play cards with her."

"But that was quite a performance of your own just now," laughed Norm. "Pretty sharp, Grace!"

"That was good, wasn't it?" laughed the woman. "I had to make sure that Old Greg was convinced that Eywa would punish anyone trying a scam like this no matter how they threatened her. Otherwise he'd probably try his scheme again."

"Just what was his scheme?" asked Jake.

"Why, nothing less than selling immortality to the highest bidder. He was convinced that he could turn the Tree of Life into a fountain of youth for all the old, rich people back on Earth. Bring 'em here, transfer them into a young body and then ship 'em back home. And charge them a colossal fee for it, of course."

"We've got to stop him before he gets off the planet," said Jake. "He has to pay for this."

"I don't think he'll get far," said Grace. "And, oh, just so there's no confusion: The RDA did _not _know about this. It was all Carla's and Greg's doing. Rhada and Ivan are innocent of any wrong-doing, too."

"Innocent _dupes!_" said Rhada bitterly. "Jake, I am so sorry!"

"You got all of that from Pilsen?" Jake looked at Grace.

"Yeah, I had a pretty good look at her mind as we were passing through each other. Pretty scary, actually."

"Hey guys," said Norm. "Maybe we should take this somewhere else. People are starting to stare." He indicated the hundreds of confused Na'vi who were watching them.

"Right!" laughed Jake. He told his people to go on home and made arrangements to bury Pilsen's body. Then they all headed back to Hometree.

"I hope it's not too late for dinner," said Grace. "I haven't eaten in twenty years and I'm famished!"

* * *

Rhada leaned against Ivan and tried to stop shaking. The events of the past hours had left her drained and quivering. But it was all over now. She was safe and with friends. They were high up on a platform in Hometree with Jake's and Norm's families and Max and Grace Augustine. Rhada stared at that legend in Pandoran research and smiled. She seemed happy as a child, joking and playing with the children.

"So, what was it like? Being with Eywa all that time?" asked Norm.

"You'll just have to wait and see for yourself," she replied with a grin. "Doesn't seem to have done me any harm."

"I don't remember much from my passage. Just a feeling of peace."

"Yeah, I'll miss that," said Grace. "But this is going to be fun, too!"

"Grace?" said Max. "You realize that you aren't going to be able to go back to the base, don't you? If word gets out that you made it through Eywa and back into a young avatar it's going to revive Hansen's scheme again. We'll have an endless stream of people trying to steal immortality from Eywa."

"Yes, the thought did occur to me. I certainly can't go back as myself." She looked at the others. "As far as anyone outside this circle knows, Grace Augustine is still dead, okay?"

They all readily agreed, but Max frowned. "I guess I should destroy all the readings I took. There might be enough there for someone to piece it all together."

"Just stash it away somewhere safe, Max," said Norm. "You never know when you might need it."

"I still can't get over all this," said Rhada. "This immortality scheme. A long time ago I knew a man and he told me about how wealth and power tended to concentrate in the hands of just a few people. But he said that death was the great equalizer. No matter how rich or powerful the person was, they still died in the end and their wealth and power tended to disperse again. But this! If the really rich people could come here and be rejuvenated then there would be no limit to their power or their wealth. God… what a nightmare for everyone else."

"Cheer up Rhada," said Grace. "We didn't just save Pandora tonight, we saved Earth, too. That's a pretty good day's work if I do say so myself." They all laughed.

After a while Ivan said to Rhada: "So what are we going to do? Stay here or go home?"

"I don't know. We've both still got family back there, but this betrayal—this _latest_ betrayal—has shaken me up. I don't know if I'd want to go back. And this is starting to feel a lot like home."

"Yeah."

Just then Jake, who'd left them for a while, came back onto the platform. "Okay, I talked with Director Kravchenko and she has Hansen and his boys in custody. She's ready to prosecute or she's willing to send them down here to face Na'vi justice. She didn't even argue about it. She seems pretty pissed about this, herself." He looked to Mo'at and Neytiri. "What do you think? Do we want them back?"

"Na'vi justice would demand that they be expelled into the forest with nothing but their clothes," said Mo'at. "No Na'vi would offer them food or shelter."

"That would be the same as a death sentence for a batch of humans," said Jake.

"Nothing less than they deserve!" said Rhada hotly.

"Yeah," said Norm, "but it might tend to defeat our attempt to scuttle this immortality scheme. If neither Hansen or Pilsen ever make it back to Earth then there are going to be people wondering if we killed them to keep the secret safe. If we let Hansen get home—even if he goes to prison—he can let people know that trying to coerce Eywa will only make them into a drooling idiot."

"Well, this drooling idiot thinks that's pretty clever, Norm," said Grace. "I agree."

"All right," said Jake, "I'll let Kravchenko know that they are all hers. But I'm still pretty ticked off myself." He looked at Rhada and Ivan. "You two want a job?"

"What?"

"Like I said: I'm not happy about all that's happened. I'm tempted to renounce the treaty and kick the Sky People out again. But…" he looked at Max. "I know that's not going to make people happy, either. So, I need someone to take some time and really look over the treaty and see what can be done to improve it. You interested?"

Rhada was surprised. She looked at Ivan. He nodded. "Okay…"

"Good!" said Jake. "But take your time and do it right! This time: no loopholes!"

**The End**

Author's note: I know some people will be disappointed that I didn't say much about Jake's or Norm's children, but that's something for another story!


	4. Chapter 4

The Summons

by Scott Washburn

_Eywa… endures – Grace Augustine_

2317 AD

She was almost half a world away when the summons came. The Na'vi woman who had once been Grace Augustine was on an island on the side of Pandora directly away from its enormous primary, Polyphemus. Pandora was tidally locked and one side always faced the gas giant and the other faced away. To the Na'vi of these regions, the great Skyfather was just a legend, a tall tale that travelers would relate around the campfires but which no one really believed. Grace knew differently, of course, but she had never tried to convince them otherwise. She called herself _Karyu_ these days, but the people she met usually just called her _Old Woman_.

The summons had come before. Sometimes it had come when her joints were particularly painful, or when there was that little flutter in her chest. She'd ignored it on all those occasions, but she realized she could not ignore it now. It was like those times when she was a child back in Manitoba and her mother was calling for her: you knew you could ignore the first two or three shouts. But there was always a different tone to that last one, that one you could only ignore at your peril.

So she had said good bye to the Na'vi who had given her shelter and mounted her Ikran and pointed his snout north. The beast didn't have a name; she'd stopped giving them names when she'd out-lived her fourth one. She could still remember the first one though, the one she'd called _Niwin'atan_. Oh, the day they had met! That first flight! The worry on Jake's face!

Jake.

He'd never quite been able to bring himself to accept that she was suddenly a lot younger than he was. A lot younger. He'd scoffed at the idea that she could follow the same path as he had and become a hunter and an ikran-rider and a full member of the Omaticaya. At her age? Ridiculous! Grace—with a bit of help from Neytiri—had set him straight on that account! And so she'd done it. She had learned the ways of the hunter and bonded with an ikran and stood before the assembled clan with her body painted and become one with the People just as she'd seen him do years before (oh, how she'd envied him!). She'd never been prouder. Not all the honors she'd won in that long-ago life in human flesh could compare with that.

And he'd been proud of her, too, and she'd taken delight in the pride. What a strange thing it was: once they had been like parent and child, but she had been the parent and he the child. Now it was just the reverse. And like many a child, she had chaffed under his oversight and so she left.

It had been a sensible thing to do, of course. More and more human scientists were coming to Heaven's Gate and the risk that someone would realize who she really was would only grow. The secret of the Well of Souls was too precious to risk. So she had left Hometree and struck out on her own to see Pandora.

And seen it she had! From top to bottom and end to end she had explored the planet. One year she had flown completely around it just to say she had. She had seen more of this world than any Na'vi or any human ever would or ever could. Everywhere she went, the Na'vi had taken her in, given her food, replaced her gear, and asked nothing in return. She had repaid them as best she could by joining their hunts or helping with chores or tending the children. She'd introduced the concept of _godmother_ to a hundred clans and she had more godchildren than she could count.

Godchildren, but none of her own. She'd fallen in love a dozen times in a dozen different places, but she'd never made the bond. The wanderlust was stronger than the other kind and she couldn't bear the thought of being nailed to one spot. She'd regret it at times, but then she'd remember Jake and his curse.

The same curse she bore.

By chance—or perhaps it wasn't chance at all—her journeys had brought her back to Hometree forty years after she had left. There was a great commotion going on when she arrived and it was because that very night would see the new Tsahik receive the Tireafya'o from the old. An icy hand had gripped her heart when she realized what that had meant: Neytiri was dying.

She had told no one who she was and she watched the ritual from the edges of the Well of Souls. She had wept when she saw them carry Neytiri in. The girl who she had taught English, who was fast as a hexepede, fierce as a Thanator, whose spirit blazed like the sun was an old, old woman, gray and frail. Jake was there, of course, and he wasn't old, not really. His avatar may have looked like an adult when he first linked to it, but it was really only a few years old when he made his transference. He was twenty years younger than his mate and she made the passage long before him. That night, when all was still in the tree, she had made her way to Jake's platform. He had known her at once and they spent the rest of the night weeping in each other's arms. Part of her had wept for Neytiri and part for Jake's loss, but she also wept for herself for in that moment she knew that she bore the same curse as Jake.

In the morning she had fled.

She was not there when Jake died. She couldn't have borne it even if she had known. The word reached her quickly enough, though, the death of the last Toruk Makto had flown around the planet. Jake was gone, Norm was gone, poor human Max had gone long before any of them. Lovely Rhada and her husband Ivan had gone as well, even though their avatars were still hale and hearty.

But Grace remained. And remained.

At first she thought she was simply lucky, but after seventy years she realized that something else was at work. And as the years passed, she discovered that it was Carla Pilsen's revenge. Grace was in the cloned body that Carla had prepared for herself. Grace and Eywa had tricked Carla out of it and Grace had moved in instead. But Carla was Carla and she had made sure that her clone was as perfect as science could make it. The Na'vi genome had been combed of even the tiniest flaw and the result was an avatar that was not only strong and beautiful, but with an exceptionally long lifespan. Eighty, ninety, a hundred years passed and Grace was still alive. Not young anymore, but still alive. Everyone else was gone, but she remained.

Until now. The summons had come and this time she would heed it.

She took it in easy stages. She was in no more hurry now than she had ever been. She visited some familiar places and explored a few others she had never managed to see before. Her flight took her over Pandora's other magnetic pole. Deep ocean rolled below and she longed to know what was down there. _Perhaps she knows._

It took months and the summons was growing more urgent. _Patience, patience, I'll be there soon enough._

Eventually, she entered territory more familiar than any other. She hadn't been here in thirty years or more, but it still felt like home. She spent a week in the floating mountains, partly to experience their wonder again, but mostly to just put it off for a tiny bit longer. Finally, she mounted the ikran and rode the winds down, down toward Hometree.

In one last bit of procrastination she swung by Heaven's Gate. The human base was huge compared to what it had been when she first set out on her journeys but it wasn't much larger than it had been the last time she saw it. The tales she heard from the clans said that the humans were at last growing bored with Pandora. That their mighty ships had found new and more interesting worlds. Grace found that hard to believe, but she was glad that Pandora and the Na'vi had escaped human attention as nearly unscathed as they had. Apparently, Earth was still there, still muddling through somehow, but her memories of it were faint now. It was distant and unreal, like those Manitoba snows of her childhood. She had found no snow on Pandora in all her travels, but she dreamed of it at times.

Evening was coming on when she landed her ikran high in the boughs of Hometree. She patted the beast and fed it. It screeched at her as if it sensed something was wrong. "One more flight," she said to it. "We still have one more flight together." It settled down and she slowly made her way into the tree's central spiral. People saw her and nodded politely. Some seemed surprised at the sight of someone so old in flying gear.

She asked to see the clan leader. She knew the way to the traditional platform, but it would not do to drop in unannounced. She was embarrassed that she didn't know his name. The Omaticaya had grown into a mighty clan, a nation, really, holding several 'home trees' in the region, but she couldn't remember who led them now. Her guide was polite and kindly slowed his pace to match hers as they made their way. At the entrance to the leader's platform they heard several voices and her guide bade her to wait while he announced her.

He came back a moment later and said: "I'm sorry, but the Oloeyktan is entertaining important guests, perhaps you can come back in the morning? I can show you a place to sleep." Grace shrugged. It really didn't matter now. She had something she wanted taken care of, but anyone could do it. She had just been curious…

As she turned to go, a woman of middle years came up the path and made to pass them, but stopped short, a look of great surprise on her face. "You… your pardon, _pizayu_. I am Tanita, can I help you?"

Grace smiled when she saw the trappings of the Tsahik upon the woman. "I am no one's ancestor, child," she laughed. "I just wished to have a word with your husband, but I'm told he is busy."

"Not that busy," she said firmly. "Come, you must eat with us." She thanked the guide and gently but firmly took Grace's arm and led her onto the platform. "Husband, we have an honored guest."

The Oloeyktan looked up in surprise, as did the several Na'vi with him, but he rose and greeted her courteously. "I am Nor'uli," he said, "And you are called?"

"Karyu, I am called in many places," she replied. "Thank you for your courtesy."

He bade her to sit and ordered food be brought and they had a very fine meal. She said little, but listened to the talk around her. As she suspected Nor'uli was descended from both Jake and Norm. "You say you came here long ago, Karyu," he said to her at one point. "Perhaps you knew my grandfather."

"No, I don't believe so," she replied. _ But your great-grandfather and your great-great-grandfathers, yes, I knew them well._

All through the meal Tanita kept staring at her as if she expected Grace to speak. Finally, the meal ended and she rose to leave. Tanita escorted her out and stayed close by. When they reached a deserted spot, Grace stopped and said: "I can't hide myself from you, can I?"

"I knew you the moment I saw you, Honored One. The memories I carry blaze with your image. Why did you not declare yourself before my husband? This would be a thing of great joy to all the people and we would hold a great celebration at your return."

"I desire no such thing, child. This is my last journey for I have been summoned."

Tanita stiffened and choked back an exclamation. But then she looked long and hard at Grace. She knew that her face was wrinkled and her hair snow-white. Her golden eyes were dimmed and her back stooped. The Tsahik bowed and said: "When?"

Grace had not made any decision, but she suddenly said: "Now. This very night." And she knew it was the right answer.

Tanita nodded and said: "May I have the honor of accompanying you?"

Grace nearly said that she need not bother, but she stopped and a great feeling of relief seemed to pass through her. She suddenly knew why she had been putting this off and delaying so long. The thought of having to do it alone frightened her. "The honor would be mine, Tanita, thank you. You look like your great-great grandmother, you know."

"Neytiri the Wise? Yes, so I have been told, and the memories I share from her mother and daughter agree."

They slowly made their way back to the Ikran roost. Tanita told no one that they were leaving and Grace was grateful for that. One companion was enough. The Ikrans were mostly asleep and they protested noisily at being awakened. But it was a fine night for flying and soon Hometree was far behind them. Grace's night vision had grown dim with time, but Tanita knew the way as well as she did and she simple followed her. Polyphemus was shining brightly when the great stone arches loomed up out of the dark.

They landed next to the Well of Souls. Grace took quite some time saying good bye to her mount. The beast was upset as if it knew what was going to happen. Grace knew that some ikrans pined away when their masters left them. She had hoped that by not giving it a name or growing too fond of it this one might escape that fate. Oh well, it was out of her hands now. Tanita helped her take off the saddle and harness. As they did so, Grace took two small objects out of a pouch.

"I would ask a favor of you," she said.

"Anything you wish."

"If you would, take these. This one I would like delivered to the humans at Heaven's Gate. It is a record of all that I have observed during my long journeys. This other one is for you. You can play it on one of the music players I know you have. It is basically the same but without all the scientific crap. You might find it interesting."

"I shall cherish it always." Grace sighed when she saw the tears streaming down the woman's cheeks.

"Hey, hey! Stop that. You've only known me for a few hours!"

"I have known you for years, Graceaugustine, ever since my Tireafya'o. The memories of those who loved you are very strong. Do not ask me not to grieve, for I will not obey you."

Grace nodded. The woman carried a curse of her own, it seemed.

"I consider this a great tragedy," said Tanita. "For you are… you are…"

"I'm the last," nodded Grace. "Yes, I'm the last of my kind. The last avatar. Well, all things come to an end, the good with the bad. But it is not a tragedy: I've had my due, three times over. I have my sorrows, but no regrets. Grieve if you must, but live your life in joy, Tanita."

"I will, Honored One, I will."

"All right, no point putting this off any longer. I'm ready." Arm in arm they walked down to the great tree, glowing white in the darkness. It seemed to pulsate as if in anticipation. Grace slowly stripped off her riding gear and then her clothing as well. Tanita took each item and laid it aside as if it were something precious. At last she stood naked. She put out her arms and hugged the woman who was sobbing quietly. Then she lay herself down on the ground and Tanita helped join her queue to one of the hanging branches of the tree. Immediately a sensation peace flowed over her and the last of the fear left her.

"Jake? Norm? Neytiri? I'm back, guys. I've come home at last."

The tree was growing brighter while the rest of the world dimmed. A familiar presence seemed to fill her. She raised up her arms and Eywa embraced her.

_Welcome home, child… My wayward daughter… Welcome home…._

**The End**

Author's Note: This was very hard for me to write and probably hard for you to read. But the story was in me and I had to let it out or I would have burst. I'm sorry for any pain it may have caused you.


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